SAN JOSE, CA – California’s newest crime may be stolen yellow carpool stickers from hybrid vehicles, reported the San Jose Mercury News. The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said it’s receiving two to three dozen requests a month for replacement stickers from hybrid owners who say they’ve been ripped off. Thieves, these drivers theorize, are peeling off their yellow carpool decals in hopes of selling them. The decals became more valuable after the state closed the door on hybrid-exemption stickers in January, stopping after 85,000 owners of the clean-burning, high-mileage vehicles were given access to fast-moving diamond lanes. Someone put an offering on eBay in February seeking $10,000 for an extra set of carpool stickers sent mistakenly by the DMV (there were no takers and the ad was removed). And a story last month in USA Today reported that hybrids with carpool stickers are selling for as much as $4,000 more than those without the decals, according to the Mercury News.