Stealing a Car

[0kay]

This is all hypothetical, but how would someone steal a car and keep it for their own personal use?
From the research I have done, I know there's the vanity plates that cops actively scan on the road, and there's the VPN plates that are used in registration. I know there's places for fake vanity plates, but what about the VPN plates?

Would it work if someone just found a car of the same model as the one they stole, and copied their VPN and vanity plates?

Thanks in advance