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Aggielife
The Battalion
Page 3 A —day. September 16, 2003
C<*v\ r UenvvAly
Fake IDs hold opportunities and consequences for
By Katie Wigginton
THE BATTALION
Chris Mitchell finally has the night off to party after four days
of work, lectures and tedious homework. He gets to the bars and
can already see the line getting longer by the second.
It is bombarded with people he knows, and he is already scop
ing out the girls to meet and greet during the night. He can hear
the beginning of his favorite familiar song starting to play. His
anticipation builds.
vilify to concentrati j n ;> Mitchell said,
id retaining mateni High school.”
The night is quickly pass
ing by, and Mitchell finally
makes it on the other side of
the door. And as he watches
his friends gleefully skipping
away to the dance floor or
straight for the bar, he is
asked to leave. Chris has just
been carded.
False identification has
been a way of nightlife for
college and high school stu
dents for as long as Aggies
have been hearing the same
speech introducing the
Aggie Band.
‘ With technology changing
daily, fake IDs tend to be a
serious problem for the
Bryan-College Station police.
Despite the scenario,
Mitchell, a junior sports man
agement major, has never
faced this problem or the alle-
gations that come with it.
Mitchell obtained his older brother's ID at the age of 15 and
had no difficulty receiving clearance from bars in numerous
towns including Dallas. Denton and College Station.
“They would just look at my age and face and let me right
“I eventually became really popular at my
«
I think fake IDs
are a big problem
for College Station,
and kids should
just wait... Plus it
takes the fun and
anticipation out of
your 21st birthday
when youve al
ready been doing it
for so long.
—Chris Mitchell
junior sports
management major
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c said
’h some of these
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onsidered depression
iymptoms persist
; said,
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epression could pro
get worse
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r you," says Stackâ„¢
‘ Aside from the popularity, Mitchell’s fake ID eventually
became problematic when it was confiscated by a police officer
one night. He managed to not have a permanent record kept on
the offense
“ft raises a lot of liability on us” said Chris”Smokey”
Lindsey, manager of Hurricane Harry’s. “With individuals and
their knowledge of technology, it is becoming very hard to
catch them. It is a big problem because it leads to bigger prob
lems of underage drinking.”
The manager of Salty Dog, David ’’Slim” Boorhees, shares this
same view.
“It is a big problem due to the big college town and the mat
ter of trying to get that first drink,” he said.
Like the checkers who looked at Mitchell’s ID, the system of
checking IDs at the door is still fairly systematic. Some popular
night spots of Aggieland have different requirements beyond the
typical checkpoints of date of birth, expiration date and com
parison of the picture to the cardholder.
“I sometimes ask for a signature to compare them to the
driver’s license,” said Jimmy Meyer, an assistant manager
of the Texas Hall of Fame and senior biomedical engi
neering major.
The Salty Dog often asks for a credit card or
University identification card.
Detection is easy for those who know
what they are looking for. Some of these
easy detectors that can be embarrassing
include scratching off words from
IDs bought at cheap flea markets,
font sizes being different, the
background color not matching and
overlaminating the ID.
Attempting to cut
and paste pertinent
information onto
the ID of a legal
friend has passed
the eyes of the door
checkers. The most
comical of all are the
tips from parents call
ing the club to warn
that their own chil
dren will be appear
ing later in the night
with a fake ID.
“I haven’t seen an
ID yet that can’t be
caught,” Meyer said.
According to Cory
Cassell, manager of the
Dixie Chicken, some
thing as simple as the ‘i’
Tony Piedra • THE BATTALION
underage college students
on the back of the license being dotted, when it should not be, is
easy for a trained checker’s eyes to spot.
So a person is caught at the door. Now what? That seems to
depend on where he is caught.
“We give the option of calling the cops and have them run the
license through the checking machine or they have to leave imme
diately,” Lindsey said.
Meyer said the Texas Hall of Fame has a paid constable on
the premise and the checker will automatically hand the person
over to him. Cassell offers the same option of either leaving the
premise or calling the police to interfere. Boorhees tries to keep
the atmosphere as peaceful as possible by simply asking
the person to leave.
Now that the person is in the custody of the police
officer. What can legally happen to him? According
to Section 106 of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage
Code, it is a Class C misdemeanor to be
charged with misrepresentation of age
by a minor.
The punishments an officer can give
include a fine between $250 and
$2,000, jail time for up to 180
days or both. He can also
punish the minor with
eight to 12 community
service hours if it is his
first offense and sus
pension of his license
for up to 30 days.
Even though
Mitchell escaped
legal trouble, he
said, “I do think
fake IDs are a big
problem for
College Station,
and kids should
just wait ... you’ll
be 21 soon enough.
Plus it takes the fun
and anticipation out of
your 21st birthday
when you’ve already
been doing it for so long.”
Lindsey offers the sim
plest and clearest,
advice possible: “It’s 1
just always best to be
honest.”
illas
d from page 1A
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10. POSTMASTER: Send address
K 77843-1111.
ilversity in trie Division of Studeil
d McDonald Building. Newsroom
]ttp://www.triebattalion.net
iment by Trie Battalion. For cam-
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