EAST MEADOW, NY — If Henry DeRossi wasn’t 78 years old, we might suspect a deeper meaning lies behind his license plate. As it is, the septuagenarian’s choice of vanity plate is raising eyebrows in the New York suburb where he lives.DeRossi’s Mercedes-Benz bears the tag “XXX PERT.” He said the plate is a play on the name of his Long Island City, NY-based business, Expert Metal Slitters.
Passersby aren’t so sure.
“You’d be surprised how many people stop me when I am at a light and want to buy porn,” DeRossi told the New York Daily News.
In fact, DeRossi’s license plate attracts so much attention that the local Mercedes-Benz dealer has asked him to park the car in a back lot when he brings it in for service.
Surprisingly, the personalized plate didn’t raise any alarms at the New York Department of Motor Vehicles, which issued the tag along with 450,291 others last year. Typically, the department declines to issue “questionable” tags, although it allowed both DeRossi’s and the giggle-inducing “69METS.” Another plate, “ADK LUVR,” became the center of a minor public outcry when the motor vehicle department attempted to revoke it based on a citizen’s complaint that the letters “ADK” referred to a part of the male anatomy instead of the Adirondack Mountains.
DeRossi said he has no intention of giving up his automotive statement. In fact, he enjoys the notoriety.
“I’m kind of a free spirit,” he told the Daily News. “I like it when I’m stopped and asked, ‘Do you sell DVDs?’”
