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I was watching a video by RealWorldPolice about a high school student who was arrested for carrying a loaded gun into his school in Seattle, WA. Footage of the entire search, detainment, and arrest of the student can be found here.

At one point in the video, a police officer is interrogating the student about the contents of his wallet, which apparently contained somebody else's ID and credit card; the officer claimed that this was illegal (starts at 13:48):

Cop: ... And who is "Caleb Wartz?"

Student: [Indicating to an ID the officer is holding] ... That's Caleb's ID ... he goes here.

C: I got that. Why is it in your wallet?

S: Because that's my friend Caleb?

C: Why do you have his ID?

S: Because he left it at the gym, and I picked it up, and I was supposed to give it to him...

C: OK, why do you have someone else's credit card?

S: That, I don't know... That... I had a new wallet, picked it up from my house, it's always been in there, never used it...

C: You realize it's a crime just to possess someone else's credit card?

Is there any validity to the officer's claim that merely possessing someone else's credit card is illegal in and of itself, federal or state?

Ryan M
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zmt
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3 Answers3

40

I think the officer is probably lying, not just mistaken, but they are not required to always be truthful. In addition to the law against possessing ID with intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any crime, it is also against the law to be knowingly in possession of a stolen credit card, or any other property. An example of a strict-liability possession crime, which the officer knows of, is that it is a crime to possess heroin, period. I am skeptical that the officer actually believes that there is a law making it a crime to be in possession of a credit card with permission, and suspect that he thinks it is stolen.

Community
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user6726
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31

Looking at Washington's Identity Theft statute RCW 9.35.020

No person may knowingly obtain, possess, use, or transfer a means of identification or financial information of another person, living or dead, with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any crime.

So, just possessing someone else's credit card is not a crime as long as one does not have the intent to use it for a crime. The officer may not exactly be lying, however - it's entirely possible that given all of the evidence, a prosecutor could prove that someone who possessed another person's credit card without attempting to use it to commit a crime did in fact intend to use it to commit a crime. It's unlikely to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt with only the teenager's evasive answer, but further investigation could lead to more evidence suggesting he intended to commit a crime with it.

IllusiveBrian
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3

Note that it's pretty obviously not illegal to simply possess another person's ID--it's not exactly an unusual situation with couples. I have handed plenty (probably upwards of 100) of government officials my wife's passport, nobody has ever had a problem with that.

Loren Pechtel
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