The DMV Is So Thorough

So we (and by "we" I mean AJ) were successful in getting the new license plates on Tuesday. We had no issues whatsoever and honestly, I was a little concerned by something that happened at the DMV. Here's the story:

I took my POA, the proof of purchase from when we bought the car, the current registration and a few other important pieces of paper. The POA I have is a special POA that specifically states that I am allowed to register, title, drive, sell, buy blah, blah, blah, basically do anything to D's vehicle in his absence.

So we walked into the building directly from having driven 2 1/2 hours to get there. I told them why I was there and took a number. A few minutes later my number was being called and we made our way over to the counter. I explained why we were there again and basically dumped the entire contents of my file folder out on the counter. The lady picked through and took the copy I had made of my POA and a few other things, then told me to fill out two forms.

After the forms were filled out and she had made copies of everything else she was going to need she told me how much I owed them and directed me across the aisle to the cashier. He made a copy of my POA for another reason (records, I don't know) and then informed me that there was a $4.07 surcharge for using my debit card to pay the $194 fee.

Seriously? The surcharge is wrong on so many different levels, the first being, who the hell came up with $4.07? Couldn't they have chosen a round number? Secondly, the $194 I'm paying your already can't cover the extra $4.07? Does that seem strange to anyone else? Anyways, on with the story.

The thing that disturbed me about the entire transaction was that they never once asked me for my ID. They didn't check to make sure that I was who I was saying I was. They also never checked to make sure that I was the person listed on the POA. I'm pretty sure that they didn't even cross check the forms with the POA to make sure that D's name was the same on both of them. I very easily could have walked in and registered someone else's car in my name and they wouldn't have noticed.

All in all, it was pretty uneventful, but the car is registered in D's name, AJ was fabulous in the car and afterwards we met up with my brother for dinner.

*I just wanted to let everyone know that I've been super busy with AJ lately (since her naps are hit or miss lately) and haven't really had time to read and comment very much. Hopefully this weekend I'll get back into the groove a bit!