Doormen at local bars work
to spot fake IDs
By Sarah Szczepanski
Assistant
Features Editor
Derrick Raymer has checked hundreds of thousands
of IDs in the four years that he has been a doorman at different campus
bars. Most of the time the IDs are valid, but Raymer, a May graduate,
remembers one particular time when one was not.
A woman gave him an ID that he took away because
he suspected it wasn’t hers. That same night, a second woman, dressed
in the same clothes as the first woman, showed up, asking for the confiscated
ID.
Raymer said he refused, even though the picture
looked like her, realizing it was a different woman who tried to use
the ID initially. He continued to refuse, even after the woman called
the police to get the ID back.
"I came to find out it was her cousin, she came
home and switched clothes with her cousin," Raymer said.
Eric Schlesselman, another doorman in West Lafayette,
remembers the time a man who he estimated to be about 6 feet 8 inches
came in with an ID that said he was 5 feet 10 inches.
"He tried to tell me 'I just grew a lot in the
past year.'" said Schlesselman, a senior in the School of Technology.
Since the beginning of 2001, the Indiana State
Excise Police have charged10 people for using false identification in
West Lafayette.
According to Indiana Code Title 7.1, individuals
charged could receive imprisonment of up to 60 days, payment of up to
$500, loss or deferment of drivers license privileges up to one year
and possible requirement to participate in an alcohol education program.
The bars around campus take precautions to be sure
that everyone in the establishment is at least 21.
Shannon Yost, the general manager of Jake's Roadhouse,
not only has doormen at all doors with booklists of what every U.S.
ID looks like, she also tells her doormen to make sure the IDs are government-issued
and valid.
After looking at the age on the card, the doormen
also look at eye color, height and the spacing between eyes, nose and
chin.
"A lot of people can look like someone, but they
won't have the same spacing or height," Yost said.
The hologram and the texture of the ID are other
ways a doorman can spot a fake.
Schlesselman says that he has looked at so many
IDs that he can tell right away when one is not valid.
"I would say that 90 percent of the New Jersey
IDs are fake, and a lot of the Kentucky and California IDs are fake,
too."
Raymer, who now works at the Wabash Yacht Club,
said the best way to explain how doormen check IDs is to compare the
process to looking at the back of your hand.
"You can spot something different within seconds,"
he said.
In the event that a minor does enter a bar, the
Indiana State Excise police are responsible for most of the arrests,
said Captain Mike Francis from the West Lafayette Police Department.
Since January of 2001, the excise police, usually
dressed in plain clothes, have charged five people with Minor Loitering,
which means entering a liquor store or a tavern.
"Most of it is undercover work," said Lieutenant
Easterday, lieutenant district commander of the Indiana State Excise
Police. "We go in there and look for the youngest person or persons."
|
