The Case of the Stolen Identity

Author's note: This story is a completely fictional creation of my imagination, except that it really happened.

It was gone. She knew without a doubt in her mind that she had placed it back in the wallet holder after purchasing that $2.69 bottle of red wine on Friday. It was Wednesday. How long had she been driving around without it? And why didn't the thief take her $13, ATM card or credit card? Granted, she was a pretty sorry pick for an identity thief, with her $1000 line of credit, thousands in student loans, and $75 in her bank account, but still.

The first thought in Annie's head, after searching her purse and car on the off-chance it had fallen out, was that her younger sister Brittany had taken it. Months ago, Brittany had begged Annie to go to the Secretary of State, tell them she lost her drivers' license, and get a new one so she could have the old one to get into bars and clubs.

"Please, Annie," Brittany had whined. "Lydia and Kayla's big sisters did it for them! It works!"

"No!" Annie had protested. "I can just see you forking over my ID when you get pulled over for drunk driving and sticking me with the ticket and the driving record. I'm sorry, but no."

Brittany had pouted, but that was the end of the conversation.

Annie had a gut feeling that Brittany had stolen it. She sent Brittany a text, since she was at work.

Annie: I lost my id.

Brittany: what? you mean your license?

Annie: yes

Brittany: that sucksss!

Annie: have you seen it?

Brittany: no I haven't

Annie: please tell me you didn't take it.

Brittany: omg no annie I would never do that to you!

Annie, trusting her sister, decided she was telling the truth. This is in spite of the fact that Brittany had a proven track record of "stretching the truth" (read: lying.) Annie told herself, "Brittany may be a sneaky little bitch, but she would never steal from her sister."

Meanwhile, Annie was faced with a plethora of predicaments. Her best friend in the whole wide world, Sadie, was in town from Minnesota. They searched Annie's entire car, all her pants pockets, the laundry room. Annie called Walgreen's and the liquor store where she buys her hookah tobacco. No sign of it. Annie and Sadie were supposed to have gone out to Royal Oak with friends from school, but alas, with no I.D. Annie could not have got in to any bar. So Sadie bought some beer and they sat at home that night.

Desperately needing identification, Annie, who worked 20 hours a week at an internship and 20 hours at an office, had to call in to work to go to Secretary of State to apply for a new license. Already in a glum mood about missing out on $70 from being at work, she was even more disheartened by the $25 fee she had to pay for a replacement license. Annie waited at Secretary of State for four hours, so long that she had to call in to job #2 at the last minute. Cursing her bad luck, Annie had nothing to look forward to except the Tigers game the next night.

Free tickets. Free parking. Amazing seats. Great company. The night should have been perfect. However, the vendors would not serve Annie with her paper license. Royally pissed off by this point, she had to have her friend buy for her and sneak around like she was 19 years old again. Once, a vendor eyed her suspiciously as Mike handed her a beer he had just purchased. Luckily, he chose to walk on. Phew.

Annie's mother, feeling for her daughter, mentioned that she should bring her passport next time she went out. Annie, appreciating the suggestion, said, "Mom, if I lose that, it's another $100 that I don't have, plus someone could REALLY steal my identity. And I have a lot of nice stamps in it."

On her way up north on Father's Day weekend, Annie thought she would stop on the way and buy her father a nice (small) bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum. Alas, she could not. Her license had not come in the mail yet, and she had left her passport safe at home.

Eventually, Annie got her license in the mail, and life was back to normal.

Until one fateful June 26th. It was a strange day to begin with. It was cousin Hailey's 13th birthday, and she had had a seizure the night before and spent the night in the hospital. Needing to be by family, Brittany called off work and she and Annie went over to Auntie's house. Hailey came home and seemed fine; she wanted Chinese food. After calling in the carry-out, Brittany asked Annie if she'd go with her to pick it up.

Climbing into the drivers' seat, Brittany tossed her wallet onto Annie's lap.

"This is so cute!" Annie said, never having seen it before. It was Coach, multi-colored, with a wrist strap.

"I got it from Tracy," Brittany explained. "I like it, too!"

Annie loves to explore new things, so she said, not even thinking, "Oh, what do you keep in the front pocket?"

Annie unclasped the front pocket and slid out some cards. Debit card, library card . . . one was sticking out. A telltale horizontal blue bar reading MICHIGAN was visible. In Michigan, when you are under 21, you have a vertical license with a colored background. Over 21, you are issued a white horizontal license with a blue bar at the top with the state's name.

Brittany snatched the wallet from Annie with amazing speed. Her voice was high-pitched as she trilled, "Oh, the front pocket? You know, my debit card, library card, BioLife card, stuff like that."

Annie was stunned, but since Brittany was driving, she wasn't exactly going to wrestle for the wallet. Brittany was notorious for flying off the handle, crying, screaming, accusing no one of loving her, getting mad when people clean the house,generally throwing temper tantrums, and the last thing Annie wanted to do was die for her drivers' license.

A plan formulated in her head. Weeks ago, one of the professors at Annie's work told her that his younger daughter stole his older daughters' license years ago. Frank told Annie to go into Brittany's wallet and look behind her real I.D.; that's where his daughter had finally found hers. Frank told Annie to just take the I.D. and not say a word about it. That way, when she goes to pull it out to use it at a bar or a liquor store, she’ll be completely screwed over. Annie thought this was a brilliant idea. She had proof; now it was time for payback.

Annie had butterflies in her stomach, but when Brittany got in the shower later that day, Annie went to the pretty Coach wallet.

It wasn't there.

Annie thought she had blown her chance. Thinking back, Brittany had taken her wallet into the Chinese food place with her - although she had the cash from Auntie in her pocket. Brittany must have taken the I.D. out of the wallet and stashed it in her pocket. Later, when she got home, she went into her room and hid it.

It was somewhere in her room. Annie knew it. It was just a matter of finding it. Because without that I.D. in her hand, she had no evidence.

By this time, Annie was so mad, shocked, and disgusted that she almost threw up. For days, she watched Brittany chatter away happily, asking Annie for favors, being silly, and it made Annie feel sick knowing that Brittany could act this way, knowing what a dirty rotten trick she had played on her own sister. Annie could imagine her gloating -- "Ha ha! I got away with it! Annie had to pay $25 to get a new one, no one knows I have it, I can get into bars and Mom and Dad will never know and I'm so smart YAY!"

After a few days of this sickening feeling, Annie lost her iPod car adaptor. Since Brittany had stolen before, Annie angrily went into her room to look for the iPod thing. After finding it in an old purse, Annie sat on the floor of Brittany's room, just thinking.

"If I wanted to hide something small, flat and thin, where would I hide it?" Annie thought. In a book. Well, that was a bust. Brittany wasn't exactly literate. In Annie's room, the I.D. would be impossible to find. This room was different.

"Where do detectives always find hidden documents?" she asked herself. "If I never read detective novels, where would I hide it? Annie, where WOULDN'T you hide it?"

Annie was staring at a photo of Brittany and Kayla. She was seized with inspiration. Flipping it around, she took off the back of the photo. Nothing. Undeterred, she looked around wildly, eyes landing on a photo of Brittany, the boy she had sleep in her bed all the time but wasn't her boyfriend, and one or two of the twins she hung out with.

Shaking, Annie picked up the frame and plunged her fingers into the cheap plastic gap between the photo and the back of the frame. Sure enough, she emerged with her own smiling face looking back at her, on a horizontal piece of white plastic with the word MICHIGAN emblazoned across the top in blue.

She went to the bathroom and vomited.

Then, she took scissors and cut it in half. She was too upset to be vindictive at the moment. Sending a quick "I found it" text to her mom, she left it on the counter and went for a run.

Even as the Glee soundtrack vibrated through her eardrums, Annie just kept thinking "Brittany lied to me. She stole from me. She let me skip work and go to Secretary of State. She let me pay for a new one. She let me miss out on going out with my best friend. All because her social life is more important to her than her sister."

When Annie got home, her parents were there. She was doing a good job of holding it together until her mom said something to her, and then the waterworks started. Annie couldn't stop crying. The tears turned into sobs, and her mom tried to hug her, but Annie didn't want to be hugged. She wanted Brittany to get what she deserved. She wanted to see some punishment. This was low. Stealing from your own sister just to go out to a bar a year early? And yet Annie wasn't really shocked at all.

To skirt around the ugly family drama, suffice it to say that the mother sent Brittany a text telling her to come home immediately after work. Brittany flipped her lid and started calling everyone to see what was going on, but no one would answer. Annie soon received this text.

Brittany: Aren't we supposed to have each other's backs? If you were in this situation I would give you a heads up as to what the F**K was going on instead of ignoring you

That sealed the deal for Annie. After all the times she had bailed Brittany out . . . bought her alcohol . . . let her borrow her car . . . drove her places . . . lent her money . . . cleaned up after her . . . this is how she was repaid? By stealing, lying, and now being accused of disloyalty? Her social life was THAT IMPORTANT that she would sacrifice her relationship with her family instead of doing what EVERY OTHER KID IN AMERICA DOES which is a) pay to get a fake I.D. b) get someone older to buy for you or c) WAIT TIL YOU ARE 21 TO GO TO BARS LIKE THE REST OF THE WORLD. Annie was livid. This was going to be ugly. And it was. Lots of screaming. Crying on Annie's part. Crying on Brittany's part . . . when she found out her mom was canceling her phone. Eventually Brittany left. Annie hasn't seen or talked to Brittany in two days, and she's probably not ready to yet.

The sad thing is, even though Annie won, she lost.