How plausible is it for a teen to have a homemade fake ID?

Mark Moore · Aug 13, 2014

I'm writing a scene where my two MCs are out for dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. One of them spots Japanese plum wine on the menu, and the other offers to buy it with a fake ID.

These girls are both 18 years old. How plausible is it that this girl could make a doctored Florida driver's license (complete with hologram and lamination)?

Also, if only the one girl is ordering the wine, would the other girl get carded as well?

Should I just skip this whole bit and have them drink the wine at the girl's house later?

wendymarlowe · Aug 13, 2014

Plausible that she could have xeroxed a totally-fake-looking ID, but much less plausible that she'd have an ID which would pass even a cursory inspection.

snowpea · Aug 13, 2014

my friend in college had a fake id.... It was an old id of hers that she doctored, which, in the dark of a dive bar or a club, no one could tell the difference.

T Robinson · Aug 13, 2014

Plausible..yes. We had very good fake ID's available 40 years ago.

If they were together, probably card both.

Mark Moore · Aug 13, 2014

T Robinson said:
If they were together, probably card both.

Hmm, well, there goes that. I'll move the wine bit to later at home. Thanks.

Karen Junker · Aug 13, 2014

Here's a link to a YouTube video by a guy who will make them for $75 - and a cursory glance at Google results gives the impression that it would not be difficult or expensive to get one, even for an 18-year-old. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojzPmOGuq7M

My friends used to simply carry a flask or a Mountain Dew bottle filled with whatever they wanted to drink, in their purse.

Little Anonymous Me · Aug 13, 2014

I will say that the holograms in that Youtube video aren't right (compared them to mine), and they're in the wrong place. Most bars/restaurants check the holograms--I just had a friend on FB complaining about how they check hers every single time she goes out (she is past legal).

I've known a few people who managed to get passable fakes and used them without repercussion, but it's a matter of where they're at.

jennontheisland · Aug 13, 2014

Friend of mine back in high school had a fake ID. His older brother's friend worked on campus at the registrar's office making student ID cards... Load on different graphics, work after hours...

Mark Moore · Aug 13, 2014

Karen Junker said:
My friends used to simply carry a flask or a Mountain Dew bottle filled with whatever they wanted to drink, in their purse.

Interesting, but I don't know how plausible that it is for my MCs to get away with bringing that into a restaurant and drinking it (they don't even carry purses, and it's late spring in Florida, so it's not like they'll be wearing jackets; they tend to dress with as little left to the imagination as legally possible in public), although a friend of mine once sneak a flash of some kind of hard liquor into a restaurant and mixed it into whatever he'd ordered.

Besides, spring in Florida. Any drink that they'd be carrying around all day (they have been out all day) would be hot.

Karen Junker · Aug 13, 2014

Good point, Mark, about the hot liquid. In my experience, with friends who wanted to cop a buzz, they didn't care about temperature, taste, texture...YMMV.

I've seen girls strap a flask to their upper thigh under light dresses. In Arkansas, in the summer.

blacbird · Aug 13, 2014

I'm just having trouble with the concept of teenagers using a fake ID to obtain Japanese plum wine. I think most of them are after Bud or Coors, enough to get really hammered fast.

And yes, both of them would get carded.

caw

cornflake · Aug 13, 2014

It depends on the place and how the teens look and act, but it's also plausible they wouldn't be carded.

In a bar is one thing, in a restaurant it's less likely, in my experience. A couple of women ordering wine with dinner would be much, much less likely to get carded, unless they were or looked 14.

Duncan J Macdonald · Aug 14, 2014

blacbird said:
I'm just having trouble with the concept of teenagers using a fake ID to obtain Japanese plum wine. I think most of them are after Bud or Coors, enough to get really hammered fast.

And yes, both of them would get carded.

caw

IME, it was the ones going for the cheap 'let's get hammered fast' varieties (Boone's Farm, Ripple, Mad Dog, Bud, etc.) that got carded.

Since I went for the higher grades (Tanquery, Stolichnaya, Drambouie, Seagram's, etc.) I pursued a don't ask, don't tell strategy -- If they didn't ask, I didn't tell.

Of course, that was also back in a more genteel time, when the drinkning age was a more reasonable 18 years.

King Neptune · Aug 14, 2014

Completely plausible. Producing fakes that will pass a cursory inspection is easy, especially if they look and act reasonably mature, because that will make the inspection more cursory.

mayqueen · Aug 14, 2014

I agree with Cornflake. I almost never got carded at the places I went before I was 21 and definitely not at restaurants. I only got carded at chain sports bars and on drinking holidays.

The other thing is that I knew people who would get IDs from other people. Like, an older cousin or something would say they lost their ID, get a new one, and give the old one to someone younger. The difficult thing there is obviously that you need someone who looks like you.

Karen Junker · Aug 14, 2014

I've only used a fake ID once -- and the person whose pic was on it looked nothing at all like me. Bars just want to cover their ass, in the unlikely event a liquor control officer should show up and start checking who has IDs.

I also used to be the door person at a large dancehall/bar in Seattle and our manager told us to just make sure everyone had SOME kind of ID and let them in even if it didn't look all that authentic. Bars/restaurants mark up their drinks by a huge percentage over cost and so they are motivated to sell as many as they can.

thedark · Aug 14, 2014

Just wanted to add that it's entirely plausible that she knew someone at school who made it for her. Try cheerfully dismissing it in conversation that way -- neatly addressing where it came from, and if it doesn't matter to the plot, you can efficiently move on.

Teens can get them from older siblings too, or someone over 21 will "loose" their Drivers License, and sell the legit original to a younger person. That's why DMV takes ID loss very, very seriously.

Christabelle · Aug 14, 2014

No clue about fake IDs, but here are my thoughts:

I've seen situations in restaurants where one person with an ID orders and the underage/ID-less person orders later and doesn't get carded.
OR
Girls could flirt with the waiter.

PeteMC · Aug 14, 2014

blacbird said:
I think most of them are after Bud or Coors, enough to get really hammered fast.

Totally OT I know, but is it even possible to get hammered on Coors? You must have to drink gallons of it!

King Neptune · Aug 14, 2014

PeteMC said:
Totally OT I know, but is it even possible to get hammered on Coors? You must have to drink
gallons of it!

If you are young and a non-drinker, then even Coors light will get you messed up, and if you don't have any tolerance it won't even take gallons.

PeteMC · Aug 14, 2014

Yeah I suppose so - I had Coors Light once at Disneyworld and I can honestly say my morning piss has more alcohol in it than that (mind you, that probably says more about me than it does about Coors beer...)

snowpea · Aug 14, 2014

blacbird said:
I'm just having trouble with the concept of teenagers using a fake ID to obtain Japanese plum wine. I think most of them are after Bud or Coors, enough to get really hammered fast.

And yes, both of them would get carded.

caw

If anyone saw the dangerous lives of altar boys, it's even more plausible that they steal the end bits from their parent's alcohol, any alcohol, and pour it into the same bottle, collecting it. JUST because it's alcohol.

Bing Z · Aug 14, 2014

OT

PeteMC said:
Totally OT I know, but is it even possible to get hammered on Coors? You must have to drink gallons of it!

Coors Light has 4.2% ABV, Bud Light 4.1%, Bud Dry 5%, Guinness Draught 4.1%, Sam Adams Boston Lager 4.8%. (Source: ratebeer.com.) Drinking shitty & lite beer doesn't necessary mean consuming a lot less alcohol. Chances are you'll end up having more as you'll probably drink way more.

How plausible is it for a teen to have a homemade fake ID?

Mark Moore

wendymarlowe

writer, mother, geek

snowpea

T Robinson

Born long ago, in a different era

Mark Moore

Karen Junker

Live a little. Write a lot.

Little Anonymous Me

jennontheisland

the world is at my command

Mark Moore

Karen Junker

Live a little. Write a lot.

blacbird

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

Duncan J Macdonald

Plotting! Not Plodding!

King Neptune

mayqueen

practical experience, FTW

Karen Junker

Live a little. Write a lot.

thedark

Weaving through the night.

Christabelle

PeteMC

@PeteMC666

King Neptune

PeteMC

@PeteMC666

snowpea

Bing Z

illiterate primate