Columnist Susan Snyder: DMV lines can prove profitable

Friday, Nov. 17, 2000 | 9:44 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

Next time you're in the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles' West Flamingo Road office, think about this:

Judy Fales might be waiting there with you, and she's getting paid to be there.

Fales, of Las Vegas, owns Judy's Tag Service. Yes, she really does what it sounds like she does. If someone is too busy to wait in line for that new vehicle tag, Judy will be glad to do it instead.

For $39, her husband, Ron, picks up your paperwork, makes sure it's in order and hands it over to Fales. Fales takes the stuff to the DMV, grabs a number and does the dirty deed no one else wants to do.

She waits.

"If I have at least four (clients) at a time I can go to the fleet window and drop it off to pick up the next day," she said. "But if it's less than that, I have to take a number like everybody else."

Fales is used to a lot more activity and stress in her work life. She used to be an office manager in the entertainment industry. But a stroke four years ago changed everything.

She still can walk and talk and drive, but juggling multiple tasks for 12 or 14 hours a day definitely is out. She came up with the idea of tag-sitting last year while waiting in line for her own.

Where many people saw only inconvenience and long lines, Fales saw dollar signs.

"This is something I can do," the 57-year-old Fales said. "And I love watching people."

Her first client was a man who had arrived at the DMV around 11 a.m., only to be given a number after 5 p.m. to come back the next day. He sent Fales instead.

While Fales waits she reads, works crossword puzzles and giggles at the dramas that unfold. She says there always seems to be one or two older men who engage the women around them in light-hearted conversation. She says she wonders how many of those guys don't even need to be there. It could be quite the pick-up joint.

"I once saw a real cowboy there -- bowed legs, studded shirt and the 6-by-6-inch belt buckle," Fales said. "Then there was the older woman with 44Ds and a micro miniskirt. Her legs were up to her ears. The guys were following her with their eyes and trying not to move their heads."

Conversations, if she wants them, are easy to come by.

"Older people like to talk. I've heard whole life stories," Fales said. "I'm the kind of person people tell their problems to. I'm like the bartender." Fales prefers the big, airy waiting room of the West Flamingo Road office. The one on the east side of town needs chairs, she said. And all waiting areas could use play areas for the children.

She's had her business license for a year, but business didn't pick up until the past couple of months. The couple gain a fair amount of business from their placards in auto dealerships.

Once they figure in her time and the gas he burns running around town picking up paperwork and dropping off tags, the $39 works out to minimum wage, Fales said.

But it's not about the money. Never has been.

"(The stroke) was God's way of saying, 'Slow down. Learn to be patient,' " Fales said. "You've got to see the good. This keeps me busy, and I love it."