That’s all fine but do they get to keep their ID’s?
What is the actual crime here?
Opening other people’s mail.
Offshoring.
How will the freshman from Harrisburg be able to afford his pot if he has to compete with the prices coming out of Guangzhou, China?
So that’s either possession of an ID purporting to be (1) some other, existing person, or (2) somebody not yourself, fictitious. I’d have to discount (3) - its use (a possible misdemeanour) by a minor to obtain booze, since no such use could possibly be established by mere ownership.
So - basically - it’s a sin to pretend to be somebody else (which I suppose I can sympathise with) or somebody who doesn’t exist, by owning stuff which might lead somebody else to believe the documentation?
Interesting.
Not sure if it’s a sin, but it’s illegal.
He didn’t open the mail thinking it was someone else’s–what the linked story makes clear, but not the BB synopsis, is that it’s not just the Dean/dean coincidence, but the two have very similar names.
I am willing to bet they don’t even get to keep their student IDs
They say you should have at least one great-big laugh every day. This was mine, for today!
and now I’ve got the plot device for the new wacky teen comedy I’m writing. One of the IDs will be for McLovin.
The illegality seems to lie not in the pretense to elseness (otherwise actors), but is rather in the possession of deceptive official documentation. Which is why it’s interesting as it appears to be a law based on the gullibility of the not-perp. Is that actually reasonable? Only arskin’, like. Don’t know. Just seems odd.
I do not pretend to understand the biped legal system.
Looks like under PA law the possession of a fake ID only becomes a crime when the person uses it to buy (or attempt to buy) alcohol http://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=18229 - minor misdemeanors.
Whereas deliberately opening someone else’s mail is a Federal Felony http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2014/01/is-it-illegal-to-open-someone-elses-mail.html, as is deliberately preventing delivery of mail to the person to whom it is addressed.
I hope the College and the Dean have good lawyers, because it is clear they have committed a far more serious offense in trying to prevent the possibility of a much less serious one.
TFA makes it clear that the Dean did not deliberately open the mail incorrectly sent to him; he has the same name as the student and opened it thinking it actually was for him (i.e. Dean Adam Smith opened mail addressed to Dean Smith - and he probably gets tons of mail addressed that way that is meant for him). He didn’t realize it wasn’t meant for him until he found the fake IDs.
He’ll probably try to dean-y it.
@daneel Even without the name mixup it’s not exactly unusual not to check the mail you are opening. It’s in your box, you think it’s your mail and you only realize otherwise when it’s strange.
