Licensed Man Is A Wag And ‘Answers To Bob’ Frustrated In Effort To Get Id, Man Obtains Dog Tag Instead

A Yakima man, stymied in his attempts to get a photo identification card from the state, has registered himself as a dog.

Well, sort of.

Actually, Robert Fred Walters, 60, registered an imaginary dog named “Bob.” But he paid the $15 fee for dog license P7781 and wears the dog tags around his neck.

Walters’ problems started last summer when he moved into the Meadows Apartments in southeast Yakima. He secured his room with his Social Security card and birth certificate, but the manager told him, “Better get some photo I.D.”

Walters had gotten rid of his driver’s license years earlier.

In November, he decided to open a direct-deposit bank account for his Social Security checks. He got the account, but again was warned, “Better get some photo I.D.”

No problem, Walters thought.

This week, he went to the Washington state Department of Licensing, where he found out getting a state I.D. card wouldn’t be as easy as he’d thought.

Walters showed up Tuesday with his Social Security card, passport, birth certificate and $4 for the registration fee. But a quick scan of his birth certificate showed a no-no: Someone had written over the number indicating his year of birth. Walters says the doctor who delivered him got mixed up about the year.

Walter was getting irritated.

So Walters went to City Hall where he played a bit loose with the dog-licensing folks.

“What’s the animal’s name?” they asked.

“Well, he answers to Bob,” Walters responded.

Ever been neutered?

“I just told him, ‘No,”’ Walters said.

Shots up to date? Well, the military had taken care of that when he fought in Korea and Vietnam.

“Yes,” Walters said.

And just like that, Walters got dog license P7781 for a mixed breed, tan-colored critter that answers to Bob.

City accounts clerk Debbie Romian chuckled at Walters’ tale but says he wouldn’t have gotten the tags if he’d said who they were really for.

Bob Schell, a state Licensing Department supervisor, said Walters could get a new birth certificate without much trouble and qualify for a state identification card.

But Walters says he has lost patience and figures he’s now run afoul of officialdom.

“Are they going to send me to a jail … or a pound?” he asked.