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Twenty a week.

That's the number of fake IDs architecture senior Richard Rush and his fellow bouncers take away each week at the Mill Cue Club.

The story is the same up and down Mill Avenue. Every night ASU students try to get into the bars, and every night they get rejected or arrested.

"If you're using a fake ID on Mill it's just a matter of time," Rush said.

But that doesn't stop students from trying again.

"I've had two IDs," said an 18-year-old ASU freshman who did not want to be identified. "One was taken away my senior year of high school at a bar in New Jersey, the other at the beginning of this semester."

The student said he will buy a third one when he returns to New Jersey this summer.

The student keeps buying IDs "to get drunk," he said. "I think the drinking should be 18 in this country. If you can die for this country you should be able to drink."

Campus police mostly come across students using friends' IDs instead of actual fake IDs, said ASU Police Cmdr. Jim Hardina.

"The issue we find on campus the most is they have the ID of someone who looks just like them," Hardina said.

Students caught drinking on campus often offer up fake IDs in the hope they can avoid minor in possession charges, Hardina added.

On Mill Avenue, Rush said bouncers at the Cue Club go through a series of steps when checking IDs.

First, the obvious things like name, date of birth and picture are checked.

Then there are further checks. Fake IDs can be revealed by the color of their hologram -Arizona's is green and blue - or whether they scan.

One bouncer can even tell if the font is incorrect, Rush said.

Someone can call the police if his or her ID is falsely taken, Rush said.

If the bouncer was in the wrong, the ID will be returned and the Cue Club will buy the person his or her first drink, Rush said.

But if the person has an ID that isn't theirs, it's best to leave, Rush added.

"We've had people get ballsy and call the cops and then get arrested," he said.

Mill Avenue is the toughest place in the Valley to use fake IDs, journalism sophomore Matthew Gallagher said.

"They took my ID away at McDuffy's," Gallagher said. "It worked pretty much everywhere but Mill; small bars, Phoenix, Scottsdale."



Reach the reporter at: john.dougherty@asu.edu.


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