Virginia Man Brilliantly Pays DMV Bill With 300,000 Pennies

This man is a hero to us all.

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Now this is change we can believe in.

In a symbolic message aimed squarely at time-killing government bureaucracy everywhere, Nick Stafford struck back at his local Virginia DMV in a truly diabolical way.

After they refused to provide a phone number to answer his questions, Stafford decided to pay his $3,000 bill for taxes and registration fees on his son’s new Corvette in 300,000 pennies, according to the Bristol Herald Courier. 

The crushing copper haul came to about 1,600 pounds worth of change, which Stafford happily toted in five wheelbarrows and left at the office, forcing the workers to count his pennies.

Watch the video here to see how it all went down:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg2Niy8LrRo

Stafford, of rural Lebanon, Va. (about 45 minutes north of Bristol Motor Speedway, home of NASCAR racing and college football’s Battle of Bristol) had a question for the DMV about which of his homes he should list on the registration for the new car.

Trouble is, the local DMV’s phone number automatically routed to the office in the state capital, where Stafford felt they wouldn’t be able to understand the geography of his question as well as the local employees.

So he filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get the local branch’s phone number. After succeeding with that, he filed suits to gain the numbers of nine other local branches. 



He won again, forcing the DMV to reveal the phone numbers where citizens can get actual live government employees on the phone to answer questions.

The judge let the DMV off without fines or penalties, though Stafford incurred $165 in filing costs for his three suits. That paled in comparison to the $840 he spent hiring helpers to unwrap rolls of pennies and to purchase the wheelbarrows he left at the DMV. 

But now if he calls with another question, maybe he’ll get voice mail because the DMV staff will presumably be too busy counting pennies to answer the phone.

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