DMV mistakenly issues driver’s license with photo of woman wearing face mask

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KOVR) — A Sacramento woman was excited to receive her new Real ID until she opened it up and saw the driver’s license photo shows her wearing her face mask.

Lesley Pilgrim received the ID in the mail with a greeting reading, “Congratulations, enclosed is your newly designed California driver license.”

“I knew the picture was not going to be good because license pictures are never good, but I did not expect the picture to be with my mask on,” Pilgrim said.

Pilgrim says the day she went to the Department of Motor Vehicles for the photo, she recalls not wanting to risk taking her mask off without explicit instructions, for fear she’d be sent to the back of the three-hour line.

“They were very strict,” Pilgrim said. “So I’m going to be very compliant, and listen, and follow every instruction, maybe to a fault.”

When it was her turn, the DMV employee took two photos, the first still wearing her mask, the second without it.

“I sign it and I then I go home, and unfortunately he had used my picture with my mask on, and that’s what showed up on my Real ID,” Pilgrim said.

The DMV issued a statement reading: “In this instance, there was an oversight. The customer should have been asked to lower her mask for the photo. The DMV will investigate how this may have happened and remind staff of proper procedures.”

“I think I settled on, you know what, we’re all human, and even the people at the DMV are human and we all make mistakes,” Pilgrim said.

A DMV spokesperson said although Pilgrim’s Real ID is technically valid, they will still ask her to return for no fee duplicate photo without her mask.

It may be a photo failure for an ID. It’s a perfect picture of this pandemic.

A DMV spokesperson says this is the only instance of this kind of mistake they are aware of. They will be calling Pilgrim to re-schedule a new photo.