Editor’s note: The name Ted Stinson is a pseudonymn. The student’s name was changed to protect his identity.
One drunken decision, one photo and $100 was all it took for Ted Stinson to launch his business selling alcohol to minors.
Since August, Stinson has been frequenting multiple large retailers, list of booze in one pocket, fake ID and wad of cash in the other.
“A supermarket is a big place, they are trying to deal with [other things],” Stinson said. “A kid comes through trying to get $150 worth of alcohol, they got four people behind them with massive carts ... They [barely] even look at my ID.”
Brandon Thomas, an Indiana State Excise officer, said using fake IDs is on the rise, especially in a college town with access to Internet companies making fake IDs.
Thomas said grocery stores and larger franchises may not catch as many IDs because “that’s not their primary business.”
Chris Johnson, general manager of Muncie Liquors off Riverside Avenue, keeps a board titled “Premature Customers,” displaying the 19 abandoned fake IDs he has collected since Aug. 1, 2012.
“Now I can tell you where they are using them: Wal-Mart, Meijer,” Johnson said. “Those people aren’t educated, they don’t even have to be 21. My people have to be trained.”
In an effort to reduce the number of fake IDs, Indiana State Excise Police started “Cops in Shops” in October 2012, in which officers go undercover as employees in liquor, grocery and drug stores.
Thomas asks all bars and liquor stores to have a UV light, a flashlight and an ID checking guide. He said most places do, and excise police are also trying to reach out to grocery stores and other places that sell alcohol by providing extensive training.
The UV lights show the UV security features, or holograms, which feature symbols such as the state seal. Thomas, who catches about 25 IDs annually, said the fake seals are an efficient way to identify a fake ID because they are obviously low quality and unreadable.
Along with having a UV light, flashlight and ID checking guide, Johnson has employee meetings to keep everybody updated on the best ways to find fakes and to communicate on trends.
Johnson and Thomas said they also look for basic suspicions, like an out of state ID, ID thickness, smoothness and overall quality, as well as more personal signs like nervousness.
Stinson has only been caught once, in Bloomington when a clerk accused him of having a fake ID when he scanned it. The clerk said his ID wasn’t supposed to scan, although it came up with his information. He took his card back and left.
Johnson said liquor stores can’t legally confiscate IDs, but they can call the police.
“That is theft, that is somebody’s personal property,” Johnson said. “Now, are they going to argue with us, are they going to call the cops? They would be in more trouble than we would.”
Stinson said since then, he shops only in Muncie and he keeps an eye out for excise.
“I think it’s what kept me here longer, just being smart about it,” he said. “I am just very careful and constantly paranoid. [Excise police] freak me ... out. I just know they are looking for me. I’m constantly checking my mirrors and looking around me.”
Stinson is also careful to keep his business from his parents by using his credit card to pay for mixers, that way his parents don’t question why he doesn’t need the card and has so much cash.
For Stinson, the paranoia is worth the money he is making. On a good day he said he gets about $120 cash profit through buying and selling bottles, and also through his “juice business.”
To make his “juice” he takes four two-liter bottles and pours soda out of each into a fifth empty bottle. When they are all full to the top of the label, he then adds nine shots to each one.
He usually sells about 20 bottles a night, and spends $15 on materials, including $10 for a half gallon of Skol. His average profit for juice is $80 per night.
“It’s a sustainable job, that’s why I was doing it for a long time,” he said. “I’m just trying to make a living. [Students] in the dorms are fiending for some alcohol. One guy will hit me up and will literally buy for his entire floor.”
Stinson’s pricing varies, although he does ask for a $5 tip for delivering the alcohol discretely.
“It depends totally on who they are and how much I want to charge them at the time,” he said. “They don’t know as much about alcohol as I do, obviously, and what I can get it for. Like, if I knew I was selling to a group of chicks, I knew that I could get away with it. I rip people off because I’m going through bulls--t, ... I’m putting [myself] on the line.”
Indiana law classifies using a fake ID as a Class A misdemeanor, which is punishable with up to a year in jail, Thomas said.
He said when a student tries to buy alcohol with a fake ID they already have five charges against them: minor in a tavern, minor in possession of an alcoholic beverage, possession of false ID on you with purpose of procuring alcohol, possession of government issued false ID and making a false statement of age.
For Johnson, the stakes are also high with a $500 fine for serving a minor, a $1,000 fine for a second offense and being shut down for two violations within a year.
Thomas said he finds the most fake IDs at the bars.
“We’ve had situations where we are escorting someone out of the bar in handcuffs and everyone is cheering because they don’t want to be drinking with 18-year-olds,” Thomas said.
Johnson doesn’t think owning a fake ID is worth the risk or money.
“I wouldn’t waste my money, and here’s why ... you know someone who is 21,” Johnson said. “Don’t go out and spend the money, don’t go and send your information over to a foreign company, don’t run the risk of getting fined. You’re going to have underage drinking, you can’t stop it.”
Stinson said if his ID were to be taken away, he would just get another one.
