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Society

Man's ‘devil’ number plate banned in Sweden

Published: 7 Jun 12 16:49 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/41304/20120607/

Authorities have told a motorcyclist in southern Sweden to change his number plate after the current “666” registration was deemed to be too offensive.

The man, from Falköping in southern Sweden, has had the number plate for five years; however it wasn’t until Friday that the Swedish Transport Agency (Transportstyrelsen) decided it should be disallowed.

When the time came for a renewal of the plates, the agency told the man that his triple six would be de-registered come Monday – even though they had given the plates the green light back in 2007.

According to the agency’s rules, “a personal plate may not be designed if it causes offence or harm to anyone else.”

“The number combination of 666 may be offensive to some,” wrote the agency in a letter to the man.

“The Swedish Transport Agency therefore has decided that you are no longer entitled to these personal number plates.”

The number 666 represents the antichrist or the devil in popular culture and is sometimes referred to as “the number of the beast”.

Some people take the number so seriously that they actively avoid it, a fear which is known as Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.

It is not known whether staff members suffer such a fear, or if the concern was for the residents of the Falköping community.

Oliver Gee
Follow Oliver on Twitter here

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17:34 June 7, 2012 by roketamine
he could always try 667 the neighbour of the best
17:41 June 7, 2012 by KingArthur
Wat about : GOD-666 / JEW-666

They exist....

Wat a bul.....
17:57 June 7, 2012 by isenhand
change it to 616, that's the Latin version of the Greek 666.
18:07 June 7, 2012 by Vstrommer71
Well,I have named my wifi network as ^666^.I guess I also have to be banned from the authorities :-P
18:37 June 7, 2012 by ?????
NO-NO-NO!

What's wrong with Sweden? Is this country being transformed into a paranoid and super-conservative state? The US had this attidute in the 80s (PRMC, etc); are we going backwards?

P.S. Anyway, could it be offensive because in Swedish it translates to sex-sex-sex? :p
19:35 June 7, 2012 by senlac
I have seen a car with the licence plate HOB 666. Apart from the "666" bit HOB is the old name (in English) for the devil - will the whole plate have to be changed?
20:38 June 7, 2012 by engagebrain
Banning 666 suggests that Transportstyrelsen believe that people in Sweden believe in the devil. Most people in Sweden show no religious faith and even many Christians doubt that the devil actually exists or rides a motorbike. Which century is this ?
21:06 June 7, 2012 by hackie
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia?? Lol. WTH :P
22:13 June 7, 2012 by johan rebel
Swedish bureaucrats are getting crazier by the day. Instead of paying them to waste their time on silly issues like this, the taxpayers should pay them to have their heads examined.
22:15 June 7, 2012 by Abe L
For every one person taking offense I'm sure it was a good laugh for 10 others. This is not the kind of government involvement I want to see. Do not extort your people for massive amounts of tax money, provide only shitty service in return and then still micromanage bs issues such as this.
22:39 June 7, 2012 by Zombie
I thought this was Sweden, not the USA.
22:48 June 7, 2012 by Kina_observer
666 in other country, for example in China, is a lucky number, people would pay several hundred thousand kronor for that plate .
23:21 June 7, 2012 by space2
If churches are offensive to me, will they ban them? ;-)
01:19 June 8, 2012 by foxpur
@hackie:

Yep

http://phobias.about.com/od/phobiaslist/a/fear666.htm
07:16 June 8, 2012 by Gordy
I've seen a number of vehicles with the reg KKK *** are they going to withdraw all them? Far more offensive to many than 666.
07:47 June 8, 2012 by muscle
lol... thanks to this news, i came to realize what 666 means.
09:23 June 8, 2012 by zooeden
No and absolute No, don´t change the number and bring the case to the higher courts, it´s not offesnive, where are we???? In Khabul???? Is this Yemen??? Uganda????

Of course this is to the interpretation of whoever comes across the number, it was passed on 2007, but surely it came across an old swedish democrat feminist who works at trafikwhatever and says noooooo!!!!

Dont change the numbers because 123 might be offensive to people from Madagascar or whatever!
09:31 June 8, 2012 by wolverine2k
I find all numbers from 0 to 9 offensive! And I find all the religious people offensive. And I also find all the ladies wearing head scarfs offensive. And....

Cutting the list short, can somebody please take care of all these things that are offensive to me and ban them?
09:43 June 8, 2012 by smilingjack
its because you are a puppet of the USA. the most extreme christian nation on the planet. have a look around your streets folks. hillary turned up - gave you your instructions and left. good little swedes doing exactly what america tells you to do.

my neighbour here in the city on your national holiday on wednesday was wearing an american flag bikini with an american flag towel wrapped around here. she was a swede too - not a yank. to give you an idea of how gullible swedes are look at their foot wear. 99% are wearing converse shoes - like sheep. the american collection.
10:12 June 8, 2012 by NyDag
666 would not offend me at all. Seeing mosques sprouting up in my home town offends me, but will they close those down?
14:27 June 8, 2012 by reader
I saw a Mercedes the other day day with the registration JEW ***, it was being driven by an Arab, I guess he didn't see the irony...... :o)
16:59 June 8, 2012 by tadchem
So no one was *actually* offended; it is just that the bureaucrats at Transportstyrelsen *believed* that someone *might* be offended, someday.
10:48 June 10, 2012 by Just_Kidding
My license plate number is also offensive to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
08:00 June 13, 2012 by Mxzf
Just coming back from China, where 666 is a lucky number, and if you get that house number you display it in very prominent and large, ornate figures...

If anyone is offended by 666 they want to be offended.
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