One might not think there could be any humor coming from an experience involving the Department of Motor Vehicles, but Jade Dodd’s case shows otherwise. As CNN reported, Dodd renewed her license on July 24, but when she received her new one in the mail, instead of her photo along with her personal identification, there was simply a picture of an empty chair in front of a blue background.
“I was with my Mom and we were going to eat lunch and I said, ‘you need to see this, this isn’t right,’” Dodd told WKRN.
“The lady at the DMV did not really believe me when I was like hey, I need my license fixed,” Dodd told the outlet. “Then, she looked it up in the system and goes, ‘oh, I need my manager for this.’”
Currently on hold with the dmv since this is what I got in the mail when I renewed my license…. 🤦♀️
Posted by Jade Dodd on Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Dodd told WKRN that her boss joked with her about the incident.
“My boss thinks it’s funnier than anyone. I was at work Friday and he pointed to a chair outside of his office door and was like, ‘I thought this was you, I waved at it this morning’ and I was like thanks,” she told the outlet.
Dodd also posted about the incident on her Facebook page. By the time WKRN reported on her story, the post had been shared more than 17,000 times. Many responded to Dodd’s post with jokes.
“People have been sending me memes that they made and telling me happy late birthday,” she told the outlet. “It’s been weird.”
Wes Moster, a spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, told WKRN that the department immediately rectified the situation upon learning about it.
“When the customer visited the Driver Services Center a few years ago, during the transaction, an examiner made an error by capturing and saving the wrong photo (of an empty chair) to the customer’s profile. When the customer recently renewed her driver license online, she received an image of a chair because that was the last picture taken on file. When the Department was made aware of her situation, we immediately made things right with the customer and provided her with a license with her actual photo and have addressed this situation internally,” Moster said.
He added that this was the first time such a mistake had occurred.
Dodd appears to hold no ill-will against the DMV, finding the situation humorous at a time when so many are suffering due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“One of my coworkers was like keep it in a picture frame, you can use it as a wall decoration and it’s a conversation starter when you have dinner,” Dodd told the outlet.
Dodd already received her new, fixed driver’s license earlier this week.