A mother in Florida took her three kids to Disney World for a fun-filled day of activities but didn’t make it past the entrance after a park employee noticed something disgusting about her on closer look. She was immediately detained because of it but wasn’t sure why until she saw two words she had no clue were there.
Tammy Lemasters never expected that “the happiest place on earth” would be her nightmare. She has seen people look at her before with a disconcerting glare, but it wasn’t until she was denied entrance to Disney and a room at a hotel a separate time that she realized what was happening. Now, she’s threatening to make someone pay if something isn’t done about it.
The 42-year-old mother of three teens recently move to Florida and got a new license to show she was a resident there, which also earned her a discount at Disney and other associated venues. Excited to cash in on the savings and have some fun in her new state, she got some really bad news instead.
“Lemasters started noticing people were treating her the wrong way,” attorney John Phillips said, who is now representing the mother after all that she needlessly endured. “A hotel wouldn’t let her stay. [She] went to Disney World, the ‘Happiest Place on Earth,’ and they said, ‘We can’t let you in the park,’” he told the Orlando Sentinel.
After getting her new license, she didn’t notice anything amiss about it until a traffic stop called attention to it, and she couldn’t believe what she found on closer look. While getting her new ID at the DMV, an employee asked if she wanted to be an organ donor. She said she did, which was supposed to be noted on her license, but instead, the government worker pushed the wrong button. In bold letters in the bottom right corner of her card it said, “Sexual Predator,” which she most certainly is not.
“It’s so embarrassing and shouldn’t be something that should have happened,” the mother said. “They need to change.” When brought to the manager’s attention at the driver’s license division where this mistake occurred, he simply blamed it on human error and said he would better train his employees. However, that’s not good enough for Lemasters after multiple embarrassing instances where this has prevented her from living her life.
Having already retained an attorney, the mother said that if steps are not taken to ensure this doesn’t happen to anyone else, they will sue the state of Florida. Lemasters has since gotten a new license with the correct information, and for her troubles, the DMV sent her an apology letter. Their sympathy note is really only worth the paper is was printed on since this mother couldn’t get her day back at Disney and the embarrassment of being looked at like a disgusting sexual predator as she stood there with her three kids.
Phillips said that inputting the wrong information is not uncommon, as he has been approached by three other people whose licenses wrongfully labeled them a “sexual predator.” The insult to injury, when a government agency makes a mistake, is that it takes forever to fix. Everyone knows how slow the DMV is, and the complete lack of customer service makes it all the more aggravating, especially when they make such an egregious mistake of painting someone as a pervert.
