All he needs to do is put the plate on and go back and show the cops and he doesn't have to pay the ticket.
It wasn't the fact he was wrong. he knew that. It was the fact some cop was roaming parking lots looking for violations when he's passed a ton on the street and none stopped him
and he found one. One can't complain. It's like a speeding ticket...if the officer catches you and not the others, it's your lucky day.
There is this place near me that is a 4 way stop...and some people don't even stop, they just blow right through the stop sign...well, cops have sat up there and write tickets all day. There were complaints in the paper about how they got tickets and not others---oh well.
It was your "lucky" day.
In Maryland, many of the police cars and some tolls have license plate readers, and they can tell if you are suspended or not---so, an officer may stop you, and you are doing the speed limit, but you are suspended, which is jailable. But, they didn't stop the person who was speeding.
Then you have the "personal" factor, the police officer may have seen that Benz and was jealous, and saw that the car had no front plate, and decided to "teach this person a lesson".