LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A personalized California license plate that appeared to mock the attack on Israel on October 7 last year was misinterpreted and had a completely different meaning, the car owner’s son said.

The son, who did not want to be named, spoke exclusively to Eyewitness News to clarify the meaning after a photo of the license plate went viral on social media, prompting an apology from the California Department of Motor Vehicles.

The license plate read “LOLOCT7,” and many interpreted the LOL as an abbreviation for laugh out loud.

However, the car owner’s son said the license plate was understandable when divided into three parts: LOLO-CT-7.

The family is Filipino and as the son explained, lolo means grandfather in Tagalog. CT stands for Cybertruck – the car model – and 7 stands for the owner’s seven grandchildren, the son said.

In short, the license plate was a shortened way of saying that the owner is a grandfather, owns a Tesla Cybertruck, and has seven grandchildren.

“I think it’s just a big misunderstanding,” the son said.

He said they explained the significance when they applied on the DMV website.

“When you make a vanity plate, you have to add a description of what that plate means,” the son said.

The DMV apologized for allowing something so potentially offensive to slip through the cracks.

“This is unacceptable and disturbing,” the agency said in a social media post Thursday. “The DMV is taking swift action to recall these shocking plates, and we will immediately strengthen our internal review process to ensure such a glaring oversight never happens again.”

The Cybertruck owner and his family are working on getting new license plates and want to make it clear they meant no harm.

“We have great compassion for anyone who has experienced hate,” the son said. “And we would be really grateful in return if anyone who sees or hears this would show compassion for our family, because we had no ill intentions whatsoever.”