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The New York City Woman Arrested For Lying About Her Age To The DMV
In 1954, a lady made headlines after she faced charges for falsifying her age on official paperwork to the DMV
One of the most sacred bits of personal information is the true age of a lady. An old bit of common advice is to never ask a woman how old she is. This was put to the test in 1954 when New York City resident Muriel Nicholson was arrested and faced jail time for exaggerating her age on her vehicle registrations to the DMV.
Nicholson’s husband Edward ran a car dealership and she occasionally helped out by filing applications with the State DMV. It was this typically innocuous paperwork that got her in deep trouble. Not wanting to disclose her true age, she used different birth dates. Three applications were introduced as evidence that saw her alternately give her date of birth as September 6, 1914, September 26, 1915 and September 6, 1918.
When the DMV put two and two together they decided to nip such dishonest behavior in the bud and had the shocked woman charged with three counts of falsifying data. Although it sounded like a joke, there were very real consequences if found guilty, as she faced a $500 fine and a year in jail as a possible sentence.
