HICKMAN COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — A trip to the DMV is usually a tedious process, but a Tennessee woman is laughing about her most recent experience.
“I was with my Mom and we were going to eat lunch, and I said, ‘You need to see this. This isn’t right,’” Jade Dodd said.
After recently renewing her license online, she was stunned when her new ID arrived in the mail without a photo of her on it. Instead, it was an empty chair.
“The lady at the DMV did not really believe me when I was like, ‘Hey, I need my license fixed,'” Dodd said. “Then, she looked it up in the system and goes, ‘Oh, I need my manager for this.'”
Dodd said her coworkers are getting a kick out of it.
“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,'” said Dodd.
He’s not the only one joking about it. Dodd posted about the mistake on her Facebook page and as of Monday afternoon, there were more than 17,000 shares.
“People have been sending me memes that they made and telling me happy late birthday,” she explained. “It’s been weird.”
The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security said in a statement:
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’s 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.
Wes Moster, Tennessee Department of Safety & Homeland Security
The department said this is the first time this has happened.
Dodd said she isn’t angry, but rather thinks the whole ordeal is funny and lightened up the mood because of everything going on due to COVID-19.
“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 said.
Dodd received her new license on Monday.