State Tries to Steal Child Support Money From a National Guardsman Who Was Seven Years Old at the Time the Child in Question Was Born? How "Odd"!

United Press International, I love you, I miss you, I used to work for you…but this story does not belong under "Odd News":

A Florida man says the state is trying to force him to pay child support for a child who was born when he was 7 years old.

Rusty Cole, a National Guardsman from Port Orange, Fla., said his tax return was delayed by the state because officials told him he owes support payments for a child born in 1995 -- despite the fact that Cole was born in late 1987, Central Florida News 13 reported Wednesday.

Cole said weeks of phone calls and office visits failed to yield any results.

"They were like, 'Oh, yes, we have it on here that you are the father,' and I was like, 'Ma'am, there's no way,'" Cole said to News 13.

This case, as older Reason readers will know, is not some kind of quirky accident, but the direct and predictable consequence of a system that incentivizes states to locate any dependable male source of revenue regardless of plausible (let alone provable) connection to the child.

Link via Amy Alkon, who is one of the only journalists working who seems to care about a system that declares you guilty until proven innocent, tries mightily to avoid DNA testing, and results in innocent men losing their passports and professional licenses, among many many other outrages.