BMV Computer Shows Man Dead, Delaying Transactions

GWYNNEVILLE, Ind. -- Gary Nebel walks, talks and breathes. But according to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles' computer system earlier this month, he shouldn't have been doing any of those things.

The Gwynneville resident said he went to a Rushville license branch Aug. 1 to renew registrations for three vehicles, holding papers that the agency sent him. After a BMV worker asked to see his driver's license and checked the agency's computer system, she revealed some disturbing news.

---

Video: Man's Transactions Delayed Because BMV Considered Him Dead

---

"She said, 'Well, I can't give you your license plates. You're deceased.' I said, 'I'm what?' She said, 'The computer's got you listed as being deceased,'" Nebel told 6News' Norman Cox.

Nebel, who had successfully registered a new truck just two months earlier, said branch workers told him they needed his Social Security card to remedy his situation. Unfortunately, he had lost that card, so he was told that until he could get a new one, the BMV could give him only temporary registration renewal papers.

The temporary papers do not come with license stickers. He and his wife, Darlene Nebel, said they feared that the lack of stickers would lead police to stop them on the road.

On Friday evening -- 17 days after his branch visit and just minutes after 6News aired a story about Nebel's situation -- a BMV spokeswoman said the agency determined that the computer system showed him as deceased because a clerk had transposed two digits in his Social Security number during Nebel's visit two months earlier.

The transposition would have happened before the agency's troubled July 5 computer upgrade, which caused problems that hindered many customer transactions.

Because the reason for the problem was discovered, Nebel will be able to get his license plate stickers at the branch next week, Cox reported.