FRIDAY
WEATHER:
Today - Cloudy with a 30
percent chance of rain.
South wind 15 to 25 mph.
Tonight - Partly cloudy, wwwoiwttwowi
low in the upper 20's_
April 12, 1996
Matt Miller/DN
Doorman Dave Maschino checks an ID outside Iguana’sWednesday night. Jody Luth, co-owner of Iguana’s, said the
downtown bar had confiscated about 1,600 IDs in the last four years.
Identity problems
Fakes are easy to make, hard to keep
By Chad Lorenz
Senior Reporter ~
For “William,” il is a simple matter of
economics.
For bar owners, they are nuisances — or
worse.
For police, they arc a crime.
Fake identitications, considered by many
to be a rite of passage in college, arc rela
tively easy to get a hold of at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln — for a price.
But with a recently completed program
with the Lincoln Police department, fake IDs
are leaving the hands of minors as quickly as
they are obtained.
Bars, which face Fines or the removal of a
liquor license if they serve minors, report
they are catching minors more often.
But the problem persists. Two downtown
bars — the Hurricane and Montigo Bay —
lost their liquor licenses last year for several
license violations, many of them for serving
minors.
And for the few who make them, the only
trick is not getting caught.
William (hismiddle name) has been mak
ing fakes since he was a sophomore in col
lege. Now a year after graduation, he never
has had a close call with the police.
He’s made about $3,000, and his process
is quick, easy and portable.
William said he got into the business
when he saw a friend making fakes, and he
realized how easy it was. He took a normal
Nebraska driver’s license and enlarged it on
a copy machine, he said.
Turning the photocopy into a transpar
ency, William then could project it on an
overhead.
Wil liam traced the overhead image onto a
poster board, making a life-size ID propor
tional to the size of a person’s head, he said.
Polaroid photographs of customers stand
ing in front of the ID board finished the
product. He would then cut out pictures and
laminate them, making a nearly perfect rep
lica of a real Nebraska driver’s license.
“Mainly I just used the skills I learned in
college,” he said.
Risky
Offenses
following maxim
Misrepresenting at
Minor in possesion
Providing false information
All class III misdemeanors Penalty - $500 fine,
jail or both.
* •
Creating altered ID
Class I misdemeanor Penalty - $1000 fine, 1 year in jail
or both.
Source: Lincoln Police Department
To avoid getting caught, William said he
made the IDs only twice a year, usually for
friends.
“If they (others who make fakes) do it on
a repetitive basis, they’re going to get caught.”
William said his portable workshop —
the ID board, a camera and a laminator —
was never used or kept at home. That way
pol ice could not have evidence to arrest him.
He takes the materials to his customer’s
residence to do the job and is out in a half
hour, he said.
As an extra precaution, he makes custom
ers sign a form promising not to use the ID
for purchasing alcohol.
“I use it as a scare tactic so they know that
I’m not responsible.”
When William started making fakes, he
was worried about getting caught, he said.
He’s gotten less worried since, which is bad,
Aaron Steckelberg/DN
because it makes him careless, he said.
William admits one flaw with his fake IDs
—they don’t work in Lincoln or Omaha, he
said.
The type is different than the authentic
Nebraska driver’s license, so most of his
sales come from spring breakers.
“Out-of-state they work as good as a real
one,” he said.
Checked at the dolki
A frustrated young man stands with his
hands on his waist outside Yia Yia’s Pizza on
a Saturday night.
A doorman, perched on a stool in front of
him, looks down at the man’s license, shakes
" : See FAKES on 6
Speed limit hill
finally passes,
begins June 1
By Ted Taylor
Senior Reporter
Sen .Ernie Chambers ’ speed limit bill finally
crossed the finish line Thursday as lawmakers
passed one of the most closely followed bills of
-.the session.
Leqislature Riding the coattails of a
k 34-15 vote, LB901e will raise
Uy the speed limit on Nebraska’s
interstates and expressways
to 75 mph and to 60 mph on
t he state’s rural lwo-lane high
ways.
That 60 mph speed limit
eould rise to 65, however, if
Department of Motor Ve
nicies icsis muicaie me loau
is suitable for the higher speed.
Transportation Committee Chairman Sen.
Doug Kristenscn of Minden said raising the
speed 1 i mi t wasn ’ 11 he most sat is fy i ng part of t he
bill.
“It’s the fact that we had the ability to set
them,” lie said. “The federal government doesn’t
tell how fast a state can drive. We can set that
ourselves.”
Since President Clinton signed a bill that
ended the national 55 and 65 mph speed limits
in January, Kristenscn said every state in the
union had addressed the issue.
If the bill is signed by Gov. Ben Nelson, the
interstate and expressway speeds will rise on
June 1. Speed limit fines also will increase on
that date.
The new fines for exceeding the speed limit
by 6-10 mph would be $25; 11-15, $75; 16-20,
$125. Exceeding the speed limit by 21 mph or
more will draw a $200 fine.
The higher speed limit on the rural two-lane
highways will not go into effect until Sept. 18 to
give the DM V time for road improvements and
sign changes.
Kristenscn said he hoped the fines and the
higher speed itself would deter motorists from
creating another “fudge factor.”
He also hoped the State Patrol would help in
the effort ofeliminatinga possible fudge factor.
“My hope is that the State Patrol will vigor
ously control the new speed limit,” he said.
7-year-old pilot
killed in crash
after takeoff
From The Associated Press
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A 7-ycar-old girl
trying to become the youngest person to fly
cross-country was killed Thursday when her
small plane nose-dived to the ground “like a
dart” soon after takeoff in driving rain and
snow.
Her father and her flight instructor also died.
Jessica Dubroff, who used a red booster seat
and extenders so her legs could reach the con
trol pedals, spoke to her mother by telephone
even as she revved the engine on the runway.
Lisa Blair Hathaway said she heard no word
of problems as the three began to take off and
ended the communication.
“I beg people to let children fly if they want
to fly,” a tcary-eyed Hathaway said before fly
ing from Boston to Wyoming to claim her
daughter’s body. She had flown ahead to Mas
sachusetts to await the arrival of Jessica and her
ex-husband.
“Clearly I would want all my children to die
in a state of joy. 1 mean, what more could I ask
for?” Hathaway said. “I would prefer it was not
at age 7, but, God, she went with her joy and her
passion, and her life was in her hands.”
Jessica, her father, Lloyd Dubroff, and flight
instructor Joe Reid began their journey Wednes
See CRASH on 2