LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — An glitch left 2,000 Las Vegas-area drivers without their registration renewal decals after completing renewals online on June 28.
Dan Leighton, a retired fire captain, renewed his vehicle registration online nearly three weeks before his July 15 expiration date. The payment went through, but the new decal never arrived.
"Nothing showed up and I was checking our credit card statement and noticed the transaction had gone through," Leighton said.
WATCH | DMV registration renewal glitch left 2,000 Las Vegas drivers without decals
When he tried to get answers, he hit a wall.
"I went in through the portal and sent a message to the DMV in the registration section and never heard anything. Tried calling the phone numbers for Las Vegas and Reno, in the registration section it told you the queues were full, call again later," Leighton said.
Calling again later produced the same result.
With his sticker expired, Leighton found himself watching his rearview mirror.
"To make sure there's no black and whites following me," Leighton said.
He held onto his online renewal receipt as proof he was current, even as his physical decal remained missing.
He reached out to 13 Investigates to ask 'Darcy, what's the deal?', "Just for the sheer reason you couldn't get through to anybody and you got no response from them," Leighton said.
The DMV responded the same day I contacted them on Leighton's behalf.
"And I've gotten more information from Channel 13 than I've gotten from the DMV," Leighton said.
The DMV told me online registration renewals processed on June 28 "were not printed or mailed due to an issue." An agency spokesperson said DMV became aware of the problem just one day before I contacted them.
In an email, the agency said, "We became aware of the issue after the vendor responsible for printing and mailing the registration decals informed us that it had received fewer renewal records than expected."
The DMV confirmed all affected vehicle registrations remained active in the system, meaning law enforcement would see a valid registration when checking a license plate. The agency also said the affected batch, including Leighton's renewal, had been sent to the vendor for printing and would arrive in the mail soon. Leighton received his decal Thursday afternoon—more than a week after his registration expired.
Leighton said the agency still needs to do better.
"They should at least communicate with the 2,000 people that have been impacted by this," Leighton said.
He remains hopeful the problem was isolated.
"Our other car is due for online renewal in September. Hopefully that one goes better and this was just a one-off. But they should still communicate better with their clients," Leighton said.
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This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.