Quick Recap from Part 1: Got a fake ID. Went to get beer for a party. Got pulled over with Nathan driving. Chief of Police showed, we were definitely going to jail.

 

**Important note: I went to college in one of two counties in Indiana didn’t “ticket” arrest for minor consumption, but actually took people to Jail.

Typical words of exchange were had. When Nathan got his registration out, they saw his fake and confiscated it. They shined the flashlight under the seat, but somehow missed my fake (or so I thought). We were told to exit the vehicle. I could look up and see the faces of people watching us. The cuffs were slapped on and I was loaded up into the Jeep Cherokee that the Chief of Police drove. Officer Friendly moved the truck to a small parking lot a few hundred yards away, so we didn’t have to pay for a tow and impound.

They didn’t take us straight to jail. Of course, for such a heinous crime, we had to be interrogated. At the campus police station, they sat us down to ask where we were drinking. One rule we always had; you were NEVER drinking at the fraternity house if you got caught. We were a dry house and already in quite a bit of trouble for things. So we did what you’re supposed to do to the police, lie.

I told them I was drinking in the dorms (I was a freshman and still lived in the dorm). I live on the second floor, so I told them I was drinking on the fourth floor. “Some guy’s room, I think they call him Steve-O.” They didn’t believe my lie for a second. They kept pressing me to say I was drinking at the house, but I stood by my story.

Nathan went a different route. He said he was at our rival Alpha Beta (not the real frat name, you know, since we aren’t Tri-Lamb’s). “Some guy named Gerry’s room.” It should be noted, Nathan’s dad was named Gerry. They ate it up, hook, line, and sinker. They believed every word he said. When this all came out later, it did not help our relations with Alpha Beta, and for some reason when we cut down the pine tree next to their front door for our Christmas party, they weren’t happy with that either.

Next, we were loaded back up in a Police car and carted off to the county jail. We were booked and placed in the drunk tank. There was nothing spectacular about that. We were among the youngest in there. About an hour or so after arriving, another kid our age arrived. He was pissed. He sat with us and told us his story. He was asleep in his fourth-floor dorm room when the police came knocking. They asked him if his name was Steve. It was. They asked if people called him Steve-O. He asked why. They asked if he’d been drinking. He had. They breathalyzed him and took him to jail.

Fuck, that poor kid got arrested because of my made-up story. Maybe I should have used a more exotic name than Steve. But what the fuck, who follows up on a dumb story like that for a minor consumption? Seriously. What a bunch of sociopaths. I never told the kid he got busted because of me. I felt bad but didn’t need a fight in jail. Lucky him, we got to shower together before being placed in our cells for the night. I got to bunk with Nathan, which I’m not sure was a blessing because he kept me up all night. I never saw poor Steve-O again.

The fraternity house had a policy to always bail out brothers. Nathan and I were bailed out the next morning. We went back and got Nate’s truck. apparently, Officer Friendly had seen my fake ID when shining his flashlight under the seat. It was sitting face up on the passenger side seat. I’m really surprised he didn’t at least take it. Of course, some seniors of our house decided the best place for me to go after getting out of jail was the bar. So that’s what we did. I got a free lawyer from the law school. It was a few hundred dollars in fines and some community service. I did my community service the Fraternal Order of Eagles club. The lady who ran it would give you about 20 minutes of work and then mark down six hours of service. She also let us drink from the keg in the banquet room if any was left after events. I’m not quite sure she knew we were there because of alcohol offences. It all was certainly an experience.