Rolly: Outsmarting Utah's driver license bureaucrats

I wrote recently about business owner Daniel Darger, who failed to get his driver license renewed because he files his taxes using the K-1 form for employers, and the Utah Driver License Division insisted that, without a Social Security card, he must produce a W2, 1099 or paycheck stub that includes his Social Security number.

The K-1 wasn't accepted because that is not one of the options listed.

Well, Tim Metos, also a business owner who files the K-1 employer form, faced the same Catch-22 dilemma, but he found a solution.

After being turned away the first time, he returned to his business, opened up his payroll software and issued himself a check. He returned to the driver license office at the State Fairgrounds, waited in line for about 30 minutes and finally was summoned to a window occupied by a stern-looking woman who seemed to enjoy turning people away.

With passport, birth certificate and check in hand, Metos approached her with confidence.

"This check is not signed," she said, firing the first volley of the confrontation.

"I'll sign the check," said Metos.

"You can't do that," came the second volley.

"Yes I can. It's my account," Metos countered.

"This check is only for 90 cents," she fired back.

"My boss is a cheap SOB," he said of himself. "It's a valid check with my SSN. I'm not leaving."

She finally gave up in despair, waving him on to the photo station.

The woman who gave the eyesight test thought the 90-cent check was the funniest thing she had seen in a while and confided discreetly to Metos that she thought the new documentation rules were silly.

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Case of mistaken identity • Contrary to what you might have seen in the New York Post, Salt Lake-area resident Jane Smith did not murder her husband.

Smith is a veteran tennis umpire on the pro circuit and was in New York for the U.S. Open. During the tournament, detectives arrested fellow umpire Lois Goodman, charging her with the murder of her 80-year-old husband in Los Angeles in April.

The Post, hustling to get the story, pulled out a file photo of the umpire but grabbed the wrong one.

While the newspaper got the suspect's name right, it ran a picture of Smith, which has been the source of endless teasing from Smith's friends.

She says when she went to mail a package at FedEx after the tournament, the clerk said, "Oh, you're the woman who murdered her husband."

The Post printed a retraction, and Smith sees some humor in it now.

Goodman, 70, has been extradited to Los Angeles to face the charges.

prolly@sltrib.com —