Proving that editors are the backbone of our society, a woman was legally declared dead because of a typo.
According to NBC Washington, the very much alive Nicole Paulino took a trip to the DMV to renew her license, only to be rejected because its system listed her as deceased.
Paulino then received a notice from the IRS referring to her as a “deceased taxpayer,” and her health insurance was canceled. Finally, she was contacted by Social Security, who told her they’d made a teeny-tiny whoopsie.
Apparently they had meant to declare an entirely different person as dead, but the funeral home gave them a Social Security number that contained an incorrect digit, which just happened to be Paulino’s.
“This really, really messes up my life,” Paulino says. “It has affected me a lot.”
Maybe Social Security will think about listing an editor position on LinkedIn.