Worked as a bouncer, and as a convienience store clerk. In Texas. A few things about Texas
I had a friend work as a clerk in a stop 'n rob store. Two teens ran into the shop, grabbed 12 packs off of the display and took off down the street. He called 9/11, reported it, and about an hour later was arrested for providing booze to minors. Arrested, not ticketed. It was on video, it didn’t matter. TABC has no sense of humor and accepts no excuses. Take a fake ID that is not detectable to any way known to man and they will care not one bit.
Because of this, I turned down absolutely anyone who was suspicious. If they had a friend with them, I carded them to, even if the friend wasn’t buying. IF the they had teenagers in the car that didn’t look like their kids, I turned them down. It was store policy and any deviation from that would mean that should I get busted I was on my own.
When I was checking ID, I sure as hell wouldn’t take an out of state ID, or a passport, or an expired ID, and here’s why.
MANY underaged kids have an older sibling or coursin that looks a bit like them. Bubba needs his current license to buy his own beer, or to drive. But buba will often give his expired license, his out of state license from when he was away at agricultural college, his old military ID, or his passport he wasn’t using till next time he traveled out of country to his little brother…or his little brother would filch it since he didn’t need it at the moment…
So if I sold a 12 pack to some kid, and the TABC was staking out the place (and they did that often) and search the loser and find his real ID…I go to jail, I lose my job etc. Not going to happen. I don’t give a rats ass if someone gets to buy a beer or not, I have bills to pay.
I had a friend who had a wall of shame at his house…and entire wall floor to cieling with fake ID’s that he had collected over the years. He was the king hell doorman, he knew all the tricks and I would look at some of those ID’s and ask him what was wrong
“oh, you have to be a photographer to recognize this, but basically this is a photo of a photo…” Or “this has the wrong background for that state”…
The bar downstairs from my coffee shop, since they are a college bar, as a book with every states ID’s in it for reference so the bouncer can look up the ID. Bars that aren’t college or tourist bars find it safer to refuse to serve the 3 or 4 out of state ID’s they get a year.
Oh, and the second someone started giving me grief over cheking the ID, they were not getting served. People who were old enough generally didn’t care, the ones who would throw a fit were genereally kids who thought that if they made enough noise they would let them in to avoid the disturbance.
One night I was working as a bouncer on Fort Worths infamous Jacksboro Hwy…a stretch of road imortilized by the song of the same name (the chorus of which was “the cops aint coming out to jacksboro hwy”)…The bar was a huge metal building with a neon cowboy hat like something out of the blues brothers, and nothing…I mean nothing…within easy walking distance either way down th’ highway. This kid comes in with his friends, hands my partner a drivers license, and says “Thats a good ID, you better take it, or I’ll sue your ass”. His friends had good ID and had already gone into the club. My partner handed him his card back and said “doesnt matter now if it is or isn’t, your not welcome here anymore. Get off the property and don’t come bacK”
he had to walk all the way back up to the main road, and stand on the side of the road until his friends finished for the night and figured out he was gone. I think it was about 2 hours. Don’t threaten security, in any bar.
