Saturday I went to the local beer distributor to pick up a case of beer for a party I was going to (all partygoers were over 21) and the woman working at the beer store (gotta buy at the beer store, here in PA they can’t just put it in the supermarket where it’d make sense to have it) decided that I had to be no older than 15.
So I hand over my driver’s license and she says ‘but you still look 15’. She scans it through the little machine, which informs her that I am in fact, 25. Undeterred she insists I still look too young, so I hand her my PA license to carry concealed firearms which also has my birthdate, signature and picture on it, cannot be legally obtained until you’re 21, and is not a common enough form of ID that people tend to make fake ones. She squints at it and then asks me how I got to the beer store. I told her that I drove there, in my own car, and that if she was refusing to sell me beer just say so now and let me go pick it up somewhere else before I’m late for where I’m going.
She decides to sell me the beer (1 case of Guinness in cans, hardly the drink of choice for most 15 year olds) and then tells me that she hopes she doesn’t get in trouble for ‘selling to someone underage.’
And that doesn’t compare in the least to the time that I had a beer store employee tell me that I stole my own DL even after producing two other IDs with my photo on them. He had me sign a little form saying I wouldn’t give the beer to anyone underage and his expert handwriting analysis determined that the signature on my DL was smaller in than the one on the paper. Because in PA, when you sign the signature card, they shrink your signature and put it on your license, he refused to believe I was the person who signed the license. He threatened to confiscate my DL and nail it to the wall of shame because he considered it stolen. So I told him forget the beer, give me my license back, and I’ll be on my way. When he refused to give my DL back under any circumstances, I asked him to call the police. If he believed the ID was stolen, call the cops and have me busted. He didn’t want to do that either, and by then a very long line had formed behind me, so I pushed the beer to the side of the counter and reached for the phone. The beer store employee says ‘What are you doing?’
‘I’m calling the police to report that you have stolen my driver’s license.’ I said, and he finally handed me back my ID and informed me that I should never, ever return to his store. An admonishment that I informed him wasn’t necessary, since I had no intention of ever going back there.
Yes, it sucks royally when you comply with the request to produce ID, they verify it twice, and then they give you the third degree. In such cases I’d like to flog those clerks with a wet noodle. I understand the frustration of the OP.
