by Nick Dill, Student Reporter
Fake IDs are a common trend in Alva, but most college students don’t realize the punishment that comes with owning a fake ID.
One popular place in town that always sees fake IDs is The Bull Smokehouse and Saloon. Students try to use their fake IDs to purchase drinks underage.
Pete Nesseralla, Owner at The Bull Smokehouse and Saloon, believes these students don’t realize how serious this is.
He said according to The Daily Oklahoman, it’s a felony.
“The felony crime of manufacturing, displaying of possessing fake cards can result in a seven-year prison sentence and up to $10,000 fine,” Nesseralla said.
He said it doesn’t just affect the person with the fake ID, but it affects other people too.
“If the server serves someone underage, even if it’s fake, the server faces up to an automatic $2,500 fine, Nesseralla said. The college kid at the door, and the college kid serving them drinks get fined before I do. If they get caught a second time, it’s $5,000, and they lose their license, and that kid probably can’t pay for college anymore either.”
Nesseralla said they are not the most upset about it, but the cops are tired of it. He said the fake IDs come from the same company, and they’re easy to spot.
He said once they had a cop at the door, they were getting 5-6 fake IDs a weekend, and they have already received 17 fake IDs this year.
Dax Benway, team member at Love’s Gas Station, said he has been working, and students have tried to give him a fake ID.
“I would say out of the college and high school students throughout the town we see about 2-3 fake I.D’s out of every 10 kids we see, it’s very common,” Benway said.
Benway said that it is easy to recognize if it’s a fake or not. He said he scans the ID through the scanner and if it doesn’t go through, then we know it’s a fake ID.
He said if he catches someone with a fake ID, then he refuses to serve them tobacco or alcohol until they are of age.
Nehemiah Lewis, team member at Love’s Gas Station, said he has encountered people using fake IDs once every two months.
He is able to recognize whether it’s a fake or not.
“There are times when I’m working real fast because of a rush, so I’ll have to take a couple glances at it before I know it’s a fake,” Lewis said.
Usually as soon as I scan the ID it’ll tell me if it’s not registered, or I can tell it’s a fake by the lamination on the ID.”
People try to bring in some crazy IDs, and they think nobody will notice it.
Benway said the weirdest one he saw was a high schooler who was probably about 5- foot-2- inches and had a 23-year-old ID that said he was 5-foot-11-inches.
Lewis said one person came in with their fake and showed it to him but didn’t realize he could see their real ID in their wallet.