Those rental places
 

So here I am sitting in the parking lot of an alignment shop waiting for them to open. Drove here an hour ago in the dark trying to avoid having the expired inspection sticker spotted by the cops. After an alignment and two new tires I get to drive in full daylight through downtown to get to the inspection station.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be.
I drove my thirsty pickup to work yesterday so I could pick up a tow dolly to use today. Took of work early and found a rental place that had one available and even at a good price. I go there and sign the contract, hand them my card and spend the last of my money on the rental. No problem with that since I get paid the next day. They took 20 minutes searching all over the place before they found the straps for it in a box. I pull around to hook up to and as I'm checking that all the lights work correctly we realized that one of the tires on it was separated and ready to blow. I said surely you have a spare? After another 15 minutes of searching - no, they don't. They apologized and said they'd give me a refund. At this point it's 4:45pm. There are no rental places around here open after 5pm. Even if there were, my money's tied up till after midnight. So here I am sitting here hoping I don't get a ticket because of this.

As for why I didn't just get one today I had already called and set up the appointment with the shop while they were looking around for the straps. By the time we knew I wasn't leaving with a tow dolly it was too late to call and cancel. They had promised to open up early to accommodate me. Just couldn't bail on him.

Damn, are they really on the prowl at the first of the month down there?
I see people driving around Pittsburgh suburbs with six month expired stickers.

As long as you don't do anything to get noticed, it's not a problem.
Plus you could tell them you're on the way to the inspection station as evidenced by your license, insurance, and registration already being on the passenger seat before you were pulled over.

Yikes

Small town Virginia. Yes, they can be quite predatory. Tight budgets and easy money.
To further complicate matters our favorite inspection station apparently lost their license last month. Had to find another place. Fortunately all the cops must have been at the donut shop though one was at Hardee's watching us while he sat in his car eating a biscuit.