My insurance renewal is coming up, and I just got off the phone with my insurance agent. Apparently, he tells me that my DMV records indicate I was involved in an accident in Riverside, CA, on 9/19/2001. That absolutely did not happen. I was not even in Southern California at that time - I had moved to Northern California over a year prior to that date. I have also NEVER even been to Riverside in my entire life, which makes it all the more humorous.

The insurance agent was unable to tell me anything else about the supposed accident, so I don't know the details, like who was considered at fault, where exactly it alledgedly occurred, etc. I am currently trying to figure out what day I should waste to head down to the DMV, find out the details, and try to get this crap corrected.

But in the meantime, I'm pissed, and misery (and anger) loves company, so out of curiosity, have any of you ever had totally incorrect information on your DMV record? I'm assuming yes, but would love to hear some anecdotes...

The most agitating part is that the supposed accident happened 2 years ago, so I don't even know how long this error has been affecting my insurance rates.

 

My boss said he had someone get a copy of his drivers license by going to the DMV and claimed they were him. They took his picture and everything and gave him a license with my boss' name on it. Then when my boss went to renew his license, a picture of someone else came up and he had to go through all kinds of crap to figure out what happend.

Good luck man, I hope you get everything straightened out. The DMV is one of the most frustrating places on earth in my opinion.

 

I hear ya there. I hate dealing with the DMV. The traffic court is also pretty irritating to deal with, though...not sure which one's more frustrating.

And oh man, your poor boss...

 

Saw this happen once where a twin gave his brother's id info to a cop when stopped for speeding. Of course the innocent brother was angry and screaming at the DA's office to "fix it." What a mess--no idea what finally came of it.

All that to say, you have my total (if useless) sympathy. Start at the DMV and find out about the violation and what court the conviction (if any) occurred in. Then see if you can get the records of the violation from the correct court and go from there.

Check to see if there were any insurance claims filed and if the other party's name is indicated in the police report (should be).

As a side thought, have you run a credit report lately? You might want to do that just to make sure your identity hasn't been hijacked.

Good luck.

 

jmc1971,

Thanks a lot for the input...you've given me some good ideas to follow up on if I don't get any love from the DMV (which I don't expect to). The supposed accident will be off my record in one more year (3 years total), so if worse comes to worst, I might just leave it there and let it disappear on its own. It's just so damn irritating to be falsely accused of something and have to go through a pain-in-the-ass process to even try to rectify it.

The identity theft thing has happened to my father (with credit cards), and that's my worst fear. I haven't had anything else suspicious (at least not that I know of) happen in that span of time, though, so I'm hopeful that that's not it.

I did check some things here at work, in Northern California (about 400 miles away from the city of the supposed accident), and I sent out some e-mails and also logged some notes into my company's computer system on that day, so if it comes down to a legal issue, hopefully that'll hold some water.

I'm hoping but not counting on getting this garbage resolved. Thanks again for the suggestions. Of course, in the end, I'm not really all *that* pissed. After all, there are far worse things that can happen in life.

 

Other ideas to consider: Ask HR at work for verification that you were at work that day (if it happened during normal business hours). Also, pull up old credit card/bank card statements to see if you used them around the time of the supposed accident. It's probably too long ago if your company has security cameras... Don't people in accidents have to sign some sort of report or something? If so, check the signatures.

Good luck!

 

Patdeisa,

Thanks for mentioning credit card and bank transactions...that's a good one that I'll have to keep in mind! I had already checked my work records (outgoing e-mails, attendance records, notes logged in the computer system), but hadn't thought of records of financial transactions. I hope it won't come down to it, but if it does, I think I have more than sufficient evidence to prove that I was not anywhere near Riverside on the date in question.

I'm still waiting for an opportunity to head down to the DMV to find out what exactly is on my record. I'll worry about rectifying it once I find out the details...until then, keep the suggestions coming! If this gets nasty, I'll need all the ammo I can get.

Thanks guys!