NAPLES – Neapolitans have long been known as a crafty lot. This summer, not only are more and more of the southern Italian residents giving the proverbial middle finger to the facemask, they’ve found creative (not to mention illicit) ways of using the them.

 One way of showing Italian authorities exactly what they think of the mask mandate is by using the face covering on car number plates instead of their faces. With the license plates obscured – given the difficulty in identifying their vehicles – traffic offenders avoid fines.

 In Nisida, an islet north of Naples, one woman was spotted with a mask over her car number plate in a bid to get to nightspots via a pedestrian zone without being identified.

 The facemask-over-the-license-plate phenomenon appears to be on the rise. And it’s not just motorists. Motorcyclists are also following the trend.

 According to InterNapoli, there have been several reports of facemasks covering the number plates of scooters, enabling them to cross the ZTL (Traffic limited zones) of Naples without penalty.

 Even worse, the facemasks seem to be making it easier to commit crimes, becoming a tool for offenders in an effort to make it impossible to identify their vehicles. Or, in the case of Naples’ infamous scooter robberies, conveniently concealing faces.

 cc