If you think you’re having a bad week, imagine you’re the South Carolina man, who lost his home, job, and entire life – after being incorrectly declared dead.
Live 5 News in Charleston – and our good friend Dub at sister station Kicks 99 in Augusta – have the story of Shane Melton.
Melton was declared dead by the Social Security Administration, and only learned this when he went to renew his driver’s license. The DMV accused him of impersonating a dead man.
“They started interrogating me saying I was deceased and told me they’re going to call the cops on me,” Melton told Live 5 news. “They confiscated my ID, so I left.”
Not long after that, Melton was laid off from his job, and he hasn’t been able to get a new one… because he doesn’t have a valid driver’s license or Social Security card.
What’s even more amazing, is that this apparently happens a LOT. An attorney told Live 5 that this happens to 6,000 to 12,000 people a year!
Melton’s scenario of being a dead man in South Carolina is not fixed, because he doesn’t have the proper documents to prove his identity, and the loop goes on and on.
“It can happen to anybody,” he says. “I never thought it would happen to me until I go to the DMV one day and boom, I’m dead. There’s nothing I can do about it. I didn’t cause the problem and they’re pretty much making me fix the problem when it’s impossible fix.”