It sounds to me that Dan Noble, director of the department’s excise tax division, made up this whole story to influence the public. I call BS.
This kinda reminds me of the old fashioned John Wayne type of western, where the city slicker in a silly suit and a bowler hat walks into a bar/saloon full of cowboys and is scared out of his wits by real men ;-)
This tax collector brought his phobias into the room and left with them realised.
BTW, the local policeman thought that both men had short fuses, so this may have not been totally made up, but the tax dude’s response is hyperbolic.