...Also known as, "What I Tried To Do For My Summer Vacation."
There are fake ID ring busts all the time. But when one of the bustees is privileged and running the operation out of a Murray Hill three bedroom luxury apartment, it's a different ball of wax. And not only did they have a "lucrative" fake ID business, "they also sold a bit of cocaine." Matthew Mendelson, son of an executive director of Cushman & Wakefield, plus four other friends were arrested after the NYPD undercover detectives bought drugs and "clumsily executed" driver's licenses. In fact, the NYPD noted equipment lacked the "coloring, shading, official-looking seal and elasticity of bona fide driver's licenses." Good to know! What's also fascinating is that all five suspects pleaded not guilty - fascinating because equipment was found - and Mendelson's bail was set much higher than his cohorts. Mendelson was in jail much longer as well: The NY Times and NY Post overheard Mendelson's father on his cellphone saying, "He's got to be taught a lesson. Let him sit in jail for five or six hours." Another crazy fact from the Times: "The five had hoped to use the proceeds of their enterprise to vacation in Europe this summer, investigators said." Clearly, this is what happens when parents buy their kids expensive gadgets!
One of the best depictions of fake ID-dom is the "Carded and Discarded" episode of Freaks and Geeks.
