Photo illustration Adelle Lennox and Adam Amato Emerald
Licenses
continued from page 1
It was the second week of my sum
mer at home, and Colonial Liquors
was the first California store at which
I had tried the $100 fake ID. I argued
for a good two minutes before he
smirked and said, “Let’s just have the
police come and decide.”
My eyes glazed over. I realized the
convincing counterfeit included my real
license number and permanent address.
I had my photo taken at the time of pur
chase, so it was my real mug.
“I’ll call them now,” he said tap
ping the wall phone.
I hesitated and then bolted, almost
crying because I still had 11 months
until my 21st birthday.
“What am Igoing to do my junior year
in Oregon without an ID?” I wondered.
Now a junior, I turned 21a little
more than a week ago. It took the
California police and district attor
ney several months to successfully
investigate the false identification.
By “investigate,” I mean I received a
frantic call from my mom early win
ter term, spouting “I told you so” as
she read aloud a letter from the in
vestigating police officer requesting
that I call and explain the falsified
card. I cried and asked: “Will I go to
jail? Will I pay a fine?”
According to the letter I received
from the California district attorney
two days before my birthday, I could
have received either a six-month jail
sentence or a $1,000 fine—or both.
But because I didn’t have a prior
record, the charges were dropped (or
maybe it’s because I described how
and where I got the card, a suspense
ful story I can’t share here for fear
that my best police sources will nev
er return my calls again).
However, after talking to State of
Oregon and Eugene officials, I real
ized that the more stringent liquor
control-freak state just north of laid
back California would not have
handled it the same way.
I was lucky, according to Oregon
Driver and Motor Vehicle spokesman
David House, to have been “caught”
in California, given that Oregon has
more strict and more immediate
penalties for fake ID users. Had my ID
been taken at an Oregon liquor store
and investigated by local authorities,
the DMV would have contacted the
department in my home state, and I
would have lost my California driving
privileges for up to a year.
However, when the DMV receives
IDs from bars and liquor stores di
rectly — without police reports —
House said they’re shredded without
investigation. Coincidentally, Eu
gene Police Department Sgt. Rex
Barrong said bars and liquor stores
should send confiscated IDs to EPD
for immediate investigation.
“We don’t get a lot of IDs sent
here,” he said. “And if it’s because lo
cal establishments are sending them
to other organizations. They should
n’t be doing that.”
Although confiscators are not re
quired to send cards to the Oregon
Liquor Control Commission, OLCC
spokesman Ken Palke said they are
recommended to do so to advance
their investigations of fake ID mills.
“We have busted rings in all areas
of Oregon,” he said. “But a lot of
times, confiscated IDs have no good
information to investigate.”
When establishments do send an ID
to EPD, officers investigate information
on the card—if viable—and charge the
individual with forgery of a government
document, a serious felony. Barrongsaid
the charge, which automatically applies
to all fabricated or altered IDs, is a hefty
risk to take for getting into bars and
liquor stores before legal drinking age.
“If you have a felony on your
record, and you have high expecta
tions for your future, you better think
about it twice because that silly deci
sion in college could come up in a
background investigation one day,” he
said. “Unfortunately, a lot of young
people don’t think that far ahead. ”
As a California-native at a college
with a truly weak nightlife for under
age party-goers, I wasn’t thinking
that far ahead either. In fact, the ma
jority of my 20-year-old friends who
have fake IDs don’t worry about get
ting caught, while others are on a
constant mission to find 21-year
olds with comparable appearances.
Unfortunately, the accuracy of my
license information brought me
down in the end. Had investigators
concluded I was using the ID for any
thing other than alcohol, including
fraud or identity theft, I’m sure I
wouldn’t have been let off so easy. I
know the student arrested for manu
facturing fake IDs in Walton Com
plex in 1997 didn’t get off so easy.
According to Department of Pub
lic Safety Associate Director Tom
Hicks, a DPS officer in 1997 saw the
student through a ground-floor resi
dence hall room window, tampering
with an out-of-state license template
on his computer. Although the ma
jority of DPS cases have involved
possession and not manufacturing of
fake IDs, Hicks reminds students
that both misrepresenting age and
forging government documents are
serious crimes in Oregon.
“We discourage this kind of activi
ty,” he added sternly.
I say to think twice in Oregon,
even if I didn’t in California.
Contact the reporter
at caronalarab@dailyemerald.com.
942-8730
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