A lot of rural police stations are not staffed. If you show up and ring the door bell, they connect you to dispatch and dispatch may send an officer to the station, tell you to go to a different station or tell you to come back later. Not what people expect when they arrive at a police station.Surprised nobody has mentioned - any vehicle can lose a plate; swing by a police station to fill out a report and then ride it home. Obviously don't keep operating for weeks like that, but the police are a lot more understanding if you made your diligence and reported it as lost or stolen, and then went to replace it when it was reasonable to do so. Nobody expects you to park it hours away from home.