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Being Payroll Professionals we know the rules of the Form I-9…it is to prove & verify your Employment Eligibility. This is serous business required by the  Departments of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But, sometimes something funny happens! My fellow Payroll Colleague, Nita Mcculler, CPP and myself started working the same day for a large service agency at a major Milwaukee business. We started as Payroll Consultants on a long-term temporary job. We are paid by the agency out of their payroll offices in Arizona. Payroll professionals are known to follow the rules, its part of our job, so when the agency said they needed a copy of the back of our drivers licenses as a requirement for their Form I-9, we said we would fax them as soon as possible. They had taken a copy of the front of the licenses when we filled out the form, but their payroll department required a copy of the back also. In Wisconsin there is nothing on the back of the license, except some codes and you really can't tell one license from another. So I said to Nita, "Give me your license, I'll make a copy of them both and fax it from the machine." I did just that and handed  Nita back her license. At least I thought I did.
The weekend before I started this position, by husband Neil, fell off a ladder from over 7 feet in the air and broke the heel of his left foot in three places. The Saturday after starting my consulting position we headed up to northern Wisconsin (or as we say in Wisconsin, we headed "Up North"). We were going to where my father was raised for my Scheuerman Family Reunion. Usually, Neil would do all the driving, but he was in the back seat with his foot propped up on pillows. On the way home I was very tired and not paying attention. About 40 miles from home I was going 67 mph, in a 55-mph zone and sure enough, I was pulled over by a County Sheriff Deputy.  He came up to my window and said, "Do you know why I'm stopping you tonight?" I said, "Yes sir, I think I was speeding". His answer was, "Well I'm only going to give you a warning ticket and ask you to slow down, May I see your license?" I said "Yes Sir and Thank You" and handed him my driver license. He asked, "is this car was registered in your name, is your record clear and do you have proof of insurance?" I said, "Yes sir" to his all questions. He looked in the back seat and said to Neil, "What happened to you?" Neil explained and the Deputy said "Oh that's too bad, Sorry, it looks like you're just coming from the hospital" and didn't wait for an answer before heading back his car. Neil said "Don't say anything let him think I just broke my foot." The Deputy returned to my car, handed me the license and warning ticket and said, "Slow down now on the rest of your way home." I took everything and put it in my purse and said "Thank you officer, I will set the cruise control." We made it home about one hour later.
Sunday night at dinner I thought I better put my license away and look at the ticket to be sure I only got a warning. I looked at the ticket and said to myself, Who's address is this?  Then I looked at the name! Oh no, I had Nita's license and she got the warning ticket last night! The Officer never said anything about the name on the license being different from the registration and insurance. I called Nita and said, "What were you doing last night?" She said "Not much, just at home." I said, "No, you were coming home from Up North and you got a warning speeding ticket." She answered, "What?!" I said, "Take a look at what license you have in your wallet." She started to laugh! Monday Nita and I exchanged licenses and I gave her, "her" warning speeding ticket and we laughed some more. All the other people we work with teased me all week to be careful going home and not to get Nita any more tickets.
 At the Greater Milwaukee Chapters National Payroll Week Celebration we were telling some of our friends what had happened and we were all laughing at the circumstances. Later that evening we had a group of Improv students from First Stage Theater come to entertain us. They asked for a funny story to re-create and everyone told Nita to tell our I-9 story. The six young male acting students re-created their own version of our story. Their version the story went like this… I took Nita's license, our Supervisor on the consulting job loved CPP's and gave out raises all the time. Nita's dog Honeybear could read licenses and worked for the Sheriff's Department, Neil was yelling at me from the back seat that I was going to get a ticket and he got taken to jail with his broken foot. In the end they had us laughing so hard we were crying. It just proves that following the Payroll Rules really can be funny!
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