WillCAD

According to the article linked in the OP, this guy left the hospital at 10am Saturday, took a cab directly to the airport and chartered a plane with cash and a fake ID, then later flew to the mainland and was in California by dinner time on Sunday.

Which means he either had the fake ID and enough cash to charter a plane ON HIM when he left the hospital, or he had an accomplice on the outside who met him at the airport to give him the cash and ID. Neither option is very appealing. I hope the relatives in CA who were mentioned to have been minding his money for him are being thoroughly investigated, as they most likely supplied him with the cash, the ID, or both.

As for TSA's screw-up in this case, I doubt that they screwed anything up beyond failing to spot a fake ID, but that is one area where I'll cut them a little slack. They're not really trained to spot phony IDs, they're just trained to make sure the name on the ID matches the name on the BP, and look at the photo to make sure it matches the person who presents it. And to check the ID's dates of validity, since we all know that the photo on an expired ID can no longer be trusted for... some vague reason that I don't really understand.

I agree with everyone else - -ID doesn't matter. The ID check provides no security benefit whatsoever. It was originally put in place to limit security screening to ticketed passengers, so the checkpoints wouldn't become overloaded with families and friends seeing off Gramma or waiting to greet Aunt Marge at the gate. But the bogus idea that the ID check will stop terrorists is laughable, and this case proves it - a guy who has been locked up in a mental hospital for over thirty years was able to procure a fake ID that was good enough to fool TSA, and use it to book a flight (I guess the booking system doesn't actually check an ID for validity, but only looks to see if the name on it is on the NFL). Couldn't a well-funded terr'ist do the same?

jkhuggins

"Greetings, TSA Screener. Here's my expired driver's license that I had when I graduated high school 40 years ago. Since then, I've added fifty pounds, gone bald, grown a mustache and a goatee, and started wearing eyeglasses. But I'm sure you can tell that the photo on the ID matches me, right?"

IF the premise of requiring photo ID at a checkpoint is to allow the screener to match the person's live visual appearance with that on the ID card, then the picture on the ID card needs to be "relatively" recent. Expiration dates on the ID card are a simple mechanism to ensure that.

Of course, ID checks have numerous other problems, as you (and many others) have posted here (and on many other threads). I'm certainly not endorsing ID card checks. I'm just explaining why expiration dates on visual images make sense.

WillCAD

Sure, but I wasn't referring to long expired IDs, just to recently expired stuff that still has reasonably recent photos on it.

jkhuggins

And therein lies the problem. How does one define "reasonably recent"? Clearly 40 years (as in my strawman) is too long; clearly 40 days is too short. TSA, IIRC, has picked one year as the limit past which they won't accept an expired ID. It's an arbitrary decision, and we could debate what the actual number should be ... but at least it's a clear objective standard.

chollie

It is an arbitrary decision. After all, if a member of ZZ Top shaved his head and beard but had a current DL with hair, is he going to have to provide further proof that he is who he says he is because the visual doesn't match? Many things - injury, plastic surgery, dramatic weight loss/gain, shaving/growing a beard, getting a facial tattoo are just a few - can dramatically change an appearance.


If the guy was properly screened and exited the checkpoint without any harmful contraband, then TSA did their job and any risk - like a nutter attacking people on a plane - was beyond their reasonable control.

Boggie Dog

Is there a report of what was fake about his ID? Was it something he created on a hospital computer, or an old one he still had or someone else's? I think knowing that would be informative of whether TSA screwed up and not.

petaluma1

In theory, TSA does not accept any expired ID. In reality, one might be able to get through on an expired DL.

jkhuggins

It looks like my memory is faulty. While traveling on expired ID was an explicit possibility in the past, it looks like approaching a checkpoint with an expired ID today now subjects you, at TSA's discretion, to TSA's infamous "identity verification process". I appreciate the correction.

Maxwell Smart

Aside from investigating the myriad failures throughout this whole episode, I think the bigger concern might be in the government response to this. Some disturbing possibilities I can envision:
1. More/new/improved Name Game
2. Purchasing of fancy, expensive new ID-checking/scanning devices for all airports for untold millions of dollars
3. Using the above new devices to scan/store ID info
4. Expansion of Secure Flight/no-fly list to include all warrants, thus making the checkpoints into dragnets for any/all criminal offenses, whether accurate or not (since traveler probably won't be able to prove immediately if a warrant is in error/outdated/resolved, and thus missing a flight)

84fiero

The most detail that's been mentioned so far is this:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/hawaii-psyc...ry?id=51203525

I'd guess that it was a fairly decent fake that someone working in the hospital and/or someone on the outside obtained for him, as this seems to have been pretty well coordinated with assistance from someone...just my guess though without seeing it of course.

Boggie Dog

This link goes to a site where one can buy a fake license. Just that easy. I am not suggesting that anyone buy one of these. Just linked for an example of what is out there.

http://www.usaidshop.com/driver-license-c-1.html

Apparently good enough to fool some government employees who claim to be on the front lines of the war on terror.

N830MH

Exactly! Nobody who told about ID. He stole ID by someone else. He's trying to get past at security with a fake ID. Yes, he's stolen ID. He could be arrested for identify theft.

That's correct. You have to go to get new ID or Driver License. You must have reissued a new expired date. Also, I have unexpired Arizona ID and I have valid ID. I don't like TSA at FLL who complaining about my Arizona ID. I already send email to TSA at FLL and they will get a disciplinary action against the screeners. I informed to my friend in MIA & FLL about what happened.