May 13 (UPI) — A Canadian woman was unable to sell her SUV after learning fictional characters Fred and Pebbles Flintstone had placed a lien on it.
The Ontario woman, identified as Maureen, became aware of the strange situation nine months ago when she was informed the sale of her Chevrolet SUV could not be processed until the fictional characters cancel the lien or the government intervenes.
“The answer that we got back from everybody was that Maureen had to go to court, had to engage the services of a lawyer, to fix up what is so obviously, and so clearly a total muck-up,” Member of Provincial Parliament Randy Hillier said. “This is just Looney Tunes.”
Documents listed the Flintstones address as 9 Yellow Brick Road, Markham, Ont. and included a birthdate of Jan. 1, 1950 for Pebbles.
“Clearly, we all knew this was an act of gross incompetence as everyone knows the Flintstones live on Rocky Road in Bedrock, U.S.A., and Fred drives a foot-mobile, not a 2006 Chev Uplander,” Hillier told The Star.
Consumer Services Minister Tracy MacCharles said the bizarre lien was the result of human error and has since been corrected and Maureen was able to sell her vehicle.
The fake names were used to test vehicle identification numbers in the government’s computer system, but since they were never removed the lien remained on Maureen’s SUV.
“It’s a human error…Service Ontario, of course, is reviewing what happened. To my knowledge, there are no other similar cases, but I am committed to making sure the right protocols are in place going forward,” MacCharles said.
