To the asshole who took my driver's license

The BBQ Pit
1

Last Friday, I and JeffB went to downtown San Antonio to watch the annual Battle of Flowers parade. Like any half-intelligent person, I locked my purse in the trunk of my car, took cash and driver’s license and cell phone with me, safely (I thought) tucked in the front pocket of my overalls. Somewhere, I lost my driver’s license. And some fuckchop picked it up, most likely for use as a fake ID, according to the nice San Antonio PD cop who took my report.

I called everywhere I’d been, from the Rivercenter mall to the Barnes and Noble to the McDonald’s, and not one of these places had it. So, I’m stuck with no license. FUCK!

I checked the Minnesota state driver’s license bureau website for directions on how to get a replacement. No dice; I have to do this in person, with ID and marriage license. (Does anyone else see the irony in that? You’ve lost your ID, and what do you need to get a duplicate but your ID.)

So, I went on IRC to whine about, and someone suggests calling the Minnesota state police, which I do. The friendly operator tells me to call the San Antonio PD and file a police report, which I do. So, now I have to call the Minnesota license bureau tomorrow and see about making arrangements to have a temporary driver’s license faxed or mailed to me, so I can get a Texas license, which is what I should’ve done in the first place.

So, fucko, you can get into bars and clubs and get loaded and find work (San Antonio has a rather large population of undocumented workers, and there’s apparently a thriving black market in fake IDs so they can get jobs.) and do all that, and I’m left with the rather severe inconvience of having no identity and risking 1) an expensive ticket for driving without a license and 2) being arrested for vagrancy because I can’t prove I have an address, or for that matter, a name.

I suppose you think it was your lucky day Friday when my license just happened to drop into your lap. Well, the bureaucratic hell I’m being forced to enter is a drop in the bucket compared to the hell you’re going to face when you’re pulled over in traffic and the cop punches the license in his little computer and finds out it was reported stolen. You’ll be arrested, taken to the station, questioned as to how you got the license, and charged with a felony. Or, a potential employer is going to notice that you don’t quite look like the picture in the license and is going to call it in, with the same result. If you’re here illegally, you will be found out and deported. In any case, you’ll hand it over, always hoping that no one notices that you don’t look anything like the person in the picture, and never quite knowing who’s going to get curious enough to dig a little deeper.

I suppose I should just be happy for what little emotional victory I can get.

[sub](Yeah, I know it’s a weak rant, and the best I can hope for is a 5, and that’s assuming the Bulgarian judge got laid last night. I just couldn’t figure out how to lay on the invective without sounding racist. It’s not Hispanics in general I’m mad at, nor any other ethnic group. It’s the asshole who stole my license, but from what the cop told me, it’s most likely that the person who stole my license was Hispanic.)[/sub]

I feel muuuuccchhh better now :slight_smile:

Robin

2

You know, I thought the face on this fake ID I got looked familiar…
KIDDING!! KIDDING!! PUT AWAY THE GUN!!

Anyway, this is gonna be one of those “that sucks, Robyn,” responses, so…

That sucks, Robyn.

3

While IANAL, I will be studying to be one. This looks like a good rant to start practicing on.

So, MsRobyn (if that is your REAL name), would you kindly answer there few questions for the court:

Is it possible that you haven’t checked every store and every place you went to?
Is it possible that your license didn’t fall into the hands of a miscreant, but was just dropped innocently onto the ground and perhaps kicked off to the curb or into a sewer system?
Is it possible that someone has found your license and given up trying to get in contact with you for no one by your name lives at the Minnesota address on your license?
Is it possible that the cop, not having the full information, has led you astray by guessing that a Hispanic has picked up your license?
and, on a somewhat different note: Is it possible to get a TX license?

4

First of all, I called or visited every place where I went into my pockets for any reason. Nothing. For all practical purposes, it’s gone.

Second, I talked to the nice officer from the San Antonio Police Department, who told me that there is a thriving black market for IDs here, because there are a lot of undocumented workers who need them to work. So, a license that was kicked in the sewer is a lost opportunity for someone who deals in IDs. Because this is such a common occurrence, it’s the working assumption of the police. She said to pay close attention for anything like requests for references, traffic and/or parking tickets, and so forth from places I’ve never been, because these are signs of identity theft. (The PD won’t actively look for the license unless its current holder is pulled over for a traffic stop and the license is run, or if the license is checked into for some other reason.)

Finally, I’ve taken all the legal steps required to start acquiring a duplicate license. I’ve contacted the Minnesota State Police, the San Antonio police department, and I have a report that I can fax to the Minnesota driver’s license bureau to arrange for a temporary license. All I can do right now is take comfort in the fact that the license is now reported as stolen, and that if said holder is caught, they will be subject to the pains and penalties of the Texas judicial system, because using a stolen ID is a felony. And, Hispanic or not, I will have NO sympathy for them.

Robin

5

And, BTW… it is possible to get a Texas license once I have a Minnesota license to surrender. Unless I want the hassle of having to take a written and road test again. And I don’t

Robin

6

Good luck in the Texas DMV. I have a friend whose husband was in the Air Force, and they were transferred to San Antonio from Fairbanks in Alaska. When she went to get a Texas license and showed the clerk dealing with her her Alaskan license she was told she would have to take a driving test and the written test. “Why?” my friend asked. “Because we don’t take foreign licenses in exchange for American ones.” Huh? Alaska is not American? My friend had to get hold of the clerk’s supervisor, because the clerk WOULD NOT BELIEVE Alaska was an American state!

7

Good Lord, I thought that had only happened to my mom’s husband who had a license from Guam! They came THIS close to making him take the full driving exam, even though I could have sworn that thing had “United States of America” on it. Idiots.

This was in Georgia, not Texas, but ignorance knows no boundaries.

8

It has been awhile since I took the driving tests in Texas. But, I seem to remember it taking about twenty minutes for the written part and about twenty minute for the driving part. It wasn’t difficult (Almsot all 16 year olds can pass the damn thing.) and I would think that it would be easier than all of the hassle of trying to get a replacement of your old liscense first, then applying for a Texas liscense.
Just my opinion.

9

It’s not that the test is really all that difficult. I passed the mandatory written test in Minnesota with minimal review. It’s that I have a valid license from another state, which in Texas, means I don’t have to test at all.

In any case, most states won’t let you hold valid licenses from multiple states, and I don’t need the headache.

Robin

10

Yeah the same thing happened to me too at the California DMV. I showed them my Ontario DL and they wouldn’t accept that Ontario was practically an American state. :smiley:

And Robin, I too think your anger is misplaced. You should be pissed more at the license’s designer who made it so easy to drop out of pockets and become lost. Or you can be pissed at the makers of the overall who have sold you pockets that are unsafe for driver’s licenses. In fact if you were here in California, you’d probably be able to sue the overall makers for damages and make them retake the driving tests instead of you.

Or you can be upset at the ground, who definitely noticed that your license had dropped out of your pocket, yet didn’t say anything.Or – and that would be my choice – you can be upset at God for making us humans imperfect enough to let us lose things, let other people fool us with fake IDs, or just be little fucks who blame everything on “Hispanics.”

11

I am NOT blaming ANYTHING on “Hispanics”. I was quoting the cop who told me about the thriving black market for IDs that exists in San Antonio because of a large population of illegal (and largely Hispanic) immigrants, who need the ID to get jobs. You’re right; I don’t know for a hard, cold fact that that’s what happened. I am going by what the nice cop told me. It’s no different than having some teenager pick your license up to use it to get into bars and such.

On a cheerier note, I found out that because I’ve had a Texas license in the past, I don’t have to go through the rigamarole that a completely new person has to go through. They can verify my MN license via computer, and issue me a temporary on the spot. Problem solved.

[sub]I’m going to be nice and forget you called me a fuck[/sub]

Robin

12

Seems I was a little hasty in assuming my license was stolen. Today, I got an e-mail from my husband informing me that someone had mailed the license to him, and he’s going to put it in the mail tomorrow.

Mods, can you please close the thread?

Robin

13

And what was the take-home lesson here?

Grandpa Mercotan always told me: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”.