Personalized California license plate wasn't mocking Oct. 7 attack, family says

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A personalized California license plate that appeared to mock last year's Oct. 7 attack on Israel has been misinterpreted and has a completely different meaning, the car owner's son said.

The son, who didn't want to be identified, spoke exclusively with Eyewitness News to clarify the meaning after a photo of the license plate went viral on social media and prompted the California Department of Motor Vehicles to issue an apology.

The license plate read "LOLOCT7," and many interpreted the LOL as an abbreviation for laugh out loud.

However, the car owner's son said the license plate can be understood if it's split into three parts: LOLO-CT-7.

The family is Filipino, and as the son explained, lolo in Tagalog means grandfather. CT stands for Cybertruck - the car model - and 7 represents the owner's seven grandchildren, the son said.

In short, the license plate was an abbreviated way of saying the owner is a grandfather, has a Tesla Cybertruck and has seven grandchildren.

"I think this is just a total big misunderstanding," the son said.

He said they explained the meaning when they applied on the DMV's website.

"Whenever you do a vanity plate, you have to put in a description of whatever your plate means," the son said.

The DMV apologized that something so potentially offensive slipped through the cracks.

"This is unacceptable and disturbing," the agency said in a social media post on Thursday. "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."

The Cybertruck owner and his family is working to get new plates and want to make it clear they meant no harm.

"We have great empathy for anyone who has experienced any hatred," the son said. "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."