After an outrage last week that the DMV approved a license plate which appeared to make a joke about the October 7 attacks against Israel, the family of the truck’s owner says people are misunderstanding that it was meant as an unrelated Tagalog reference.  

A story broke last week that a California DMV-approved vanity license plate on a Tesla Cybertruck read “LOLOCT7,” an apparent “LOL” reference to the Hamas attack on Israeli citizens on October 7, 2023. The Jewish advocacy group StopAntisemitism said in a statement, “StopAntisemitism is appalled by the sickening display on a Cyber Truck plate in California, celebrating terrorism against the Jewish people.”

The DMV was quick to respond with an apology for approving the vanity plate. "The DMV Is taking swift action to recall these shocking plates, and we will immediately strengthen our internal review process to ensure such an egregious oversight never happens again,” they said in a statement. “The use of hateful language is not only a clear violation of our policies but also a violation of our core values to proudly serve the public and ensure safe and welcoming roadways."

But now the family of that Southern California Cybertruck owner insists the whole thing was a linguistic misunderstanding. Los Angeles’ KABC spoke to a family member of the Cybertruck owner, noting that the family is Filipino. And the truck’s owner says people are misinterpreting a Tagalog reference that license plate is making.

They say that the “LOLO” is the Tagalog word for “grandfather,” that CT references Cybertruck, and that the 7 refers to the grandfather’s seven grandchildren. Putting these together created “LOLOCT7,” which the family insists is not meant to reference October 7, Hamas, Israel, or any of that.

The family member is speaking anonymously, and KABC is just taking his word for it, so we’ll probably never know if this is the true explanation. But the family also says they’re getting new plates, and they sure seem eager to put all this behind them as soon as possible.

"We have great empathy for anyone who has experienced any hatred," the son of the truck owner told KABC. "And we would really appreciate, in turn, for anyone that's seeing this or hearing this to have any empathy toward our family because we had no ill intent for anything."

Related: California DMV Lets Antisemitic Vanity License Plate Slip, and It Was For a Cybertruck [SFist]

Image: @StopAntisemites via Twitter