New Jerseyans still dealing with MVC horrors (Opinion)

Last Thursday, I received a text from my friend, retired Manalapan Detective Robert Fausak. He spent six hours at Motor Vehicle simply because he needed a new picture for his driver's license, which he had to renew. If I'm going to spend six hours in line, there should be Springsteen tickets at the end of it. I'm talking vintage Bruce from the Born In The USA tour, and we should all be as old as we were then!

Here's the text's Detective Fausak sent me about this experience, as well as the audio from when he called into my show last week:

"I got in line around 7:45-7:50ish. We moved little by little and probably by 9 a.m. got 30 to 40 yards closer to the building. Then the security officer came out and handed printed numbered tickets out to everyone in the line. I got the number 111. He continued to the back of the line and STOPPED giving out the tickets with probably 30 to 40 people still in the rear of the line."

Fausak followed that text up with:

"We could hear people talking with him but NOT what they were saying. You could tell the people were NOT HAPPY. After a few minutes, that group of people started to leave the area back to their cars. The security officer went back into the building and brought out a traffic cone with a handmade sign attached to what looked like a broom handle and placed it just behind the last person with the last number he gave out."

He went on:

"We didn’t read the sign but all of us were sure it said, 'No one else' or 'line closed' or something to indicate NO MORE PEOPLE TODAY. The group around me who I was chatting with - we sort of figured that the last number given out to the end of the line was possibly 150?  I was 111 and there were probably around 30-40 people BEHIND me. REMEMBER this was at around 9am. I figured that if I was THAT CLOSE to the End of this line at 9 am that I wasn’t going to be done until VERY LATE in the day. Guess I was CORRECT. I was completely done just after 1:30 pm with another 30-40 people BEHIND me."

The nightmare continued. When Fausak finally got to the window that would take his new picture, give him his new license and take his payment, he hit a new snag:

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"The person looks at my stuff and I’m watching. Starts to compare all the above stuff AGAINST my BIRTH CERTIFICATE. Has a curious look on their face. Finally says to me that there is an ISSUE with my Birth Certificate. Slides it under the plexiglass window and points to my name. Certificate says Robert Fausak. I ask what is wrong as that’s my name. Person says all the other stuff (passport, NJ drivers license, bank debit card and utility bill) all have my MIDDLE initial or name on Them and it’s different from my birth certificate. Asks me why that is. I said when I was BORN I didn’t HAVE a middle name. Was asked how I got it. Said when I received confirmation in Catholic Church I took Edward as my MIDDLE NAME. Was my Fathers name. After discussion about it I was advised to contact whoever gave me my birth certificate and change it to show my middle name. NO JOKE Steve. I SWEAR!!! I said can’t change a birth certificate because I didn’t have the name when I was born. NO JOKE.  I asked why all the issue here and was told that they are getting stricter with credentials BECAUSE of the PHONY DRIVERS LICENSES coming into this country from China and other places. Well I GOT my NEW license WHEW.  Do you believe that crap? All the credentials I have to show to get a DRIVERS LICENSE but I can VOTE for a PRESIDENT by MAIL. BS. UNBELIEVABLE. Steve all the above is the TRUTH. You can’t make that up. So what do you think of my day at Motor Vehicle???"

This motor vehicle situation has been going on for weeks. The lines are so bad that Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick is calling for Governor Murphy to step in and do something about it. By stepping in he means the governor should literally go down there, stand in line and feel the pain that those who have to go are going through.

How bad are the MVC lines?

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Steve Trevelise. Any opinions expressed are Steve's own. Steve Trevelise is on New Jersey 101.5 Monday-Thursday from 7pm-11pm. Follow him on Twitter @realstevetrev.

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