On Wednesday, 61-year-old Covington resident Tyrone Wudtee was arrested after an east-coast man, known only by the initials M.L.S., filed a criminal complaint alleging that Wudtee had stolen his identity more than 30 years ago and had been collecting benefits in his name ever since.

According to a release sent out by the U.S. Attorney's Office for Western Washington, Wudtee encountered the real M.L.S. during a bar fight in Baltimore in 1977—during which Wudtee allegedly took off with M.L.S.'s wallet. In June of the following year, Wudtee was arrested for his first false identity charge in Tacoma, according to the release, which states, "various jail booking photos from the past two decades show Wudtee using the name and identifying information of M.L.S."

Wudtee also allegedly collected welfare benefits under the name and social security number of the real M.L.S., who has continued to reside on the east coast. Authorities also say that Wudtee has collected more than $100,000 in unemployment benefits under the assumed name since 1995.

The real M.L.S., who resides in New York, only became aware of the alleged identity theft when he sought to get a learner's permit and was told by the New York DMV that he needed to provide his Washington State identity information in order to do so. M.L.S., it turns out, had never even been to our fair state. He called the Washington State Department of Licensing to report the possible identity theft in January 2010.

Wudtee only allegedly provided his true identity yesterday, when he appeared for the first time in Seattle's U.S. District Court to answer to the charge of aggravated identity theft, which, if convicted, includes a mandatory two-year sentence (excluding any possible prison time on the underlying count of social security misuse).