Story Archive

Fighting Takes Money

How much money did Nick Stafford bring for the sales tax on two cars? 1,600 pounds. Not sterling — pennies, in the amount of $3,000, which he brought to the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Lebanon, Va., in five wheelbarrows, which he left behind rather than dump the pennies on the floor. He had tried to call his DMV local office to find out which address to use in licensing a new car — he has four houses in two counties — but he got a call center instead. So he used a Freedom of Information Act request to get a local number. The people who answered told him mere citizens weren’t supposed to call that number. He kept calling and eventually got an answer. Then he asked for the local numbers for other DMV offices. No, he was told, so he filed suit. A state lawyer handed him the numbers in court, but the judge refused to impose FOIA penalties. Between the litigation, wheelbarrows, and hiring people to break open rolls of pennies, Stafford spent $1,005 on his project. “If they were going to inconvenience me, I was going to inconvenience them,” he said. (AC/Bristol Herald Courier) ...Satisfaction is grand. Or at least it costs one.