Imagine traveling on the thruway and seeing a New York vanity license plate. "GOTOSAMA" .  A retired New York City police officer has the plate after switching it from "GETOSAMA",  it's just not on his car yet. Arno Herwerth of Hauppauge says

It's my way of saying thank you to the troops and everything they sacrificed in order to bring this about.

Herwerth first got a the plate reading "GETOSAMA" in 2007 out of irritation that Bin Laden was still at large.

I was trying to bring awareness, I was getting frustrated over the years with that murderer getting away with it and not being captured.

But New York  state declined to give him the vehicle plate because it could be deemed as "derogatory to a particular ethnic group."  Herwerth fought and won the right to get the plate.

After the announcement that bin Laden was shot and killed in Pakistan, Herwerth tried to secure a plate reading "GOTOSAMA." A computer error on D.M.V. website prevented him from trading the plates but now there are no barriers to getting the plate", said DMV spokeswoman Jackie McGinnis said.

More From Q 105.7