A New York man turned to police for help after claiming a nightclub bouncer confiscated his REAL ID and refused to give it back. However, the responding officers told him they couldn’t retrieve it from venue security, leaving viewers questioning why police weren’t able to help.
The situation became even more frustrating because the man said he had a flight the following day. He later revealed that he eventually got his ID back, but only after spending about two hours trying to resolve the dispute.
In the video above, the man explains to an officer that a bouncer at a nearby nightclub confiscated his REAL ID and was refusing to return it.
For context, A REAL ID is a federally compliant driver’s license or identification card that can be used to meet federal identification requirements, including at airport security checkpoints. The man said the situation was particularly concerning because he had a flight scheduled for the following day.
The first officer told the man that police could not retrieve the ID from the security guards, explaining, “because they work here at the venue.” After a brief exchange, the officer said she no longer wished to speak with him, and another officer eventually became involved.
In a follow-up video, a second officer was told what had happened but gave a similar response, directing the group to contact a supervisor with the security company rather than having police retrieve the ID. “We tried; they won’t help us. That’s why we’re begging you for help,” a woman with the man responded.
Viewers Question New York Police Response to Confiscated REAL ID
Many commenters believed the officers should have intervened, although their claims about the law were not necessarily established by the videos. “Cop is 100% incorrect. They stole the ID, he needs to call for a supervisor,” one person wrote. Another claimed, “Its a state document you can’t take it unless its fake.”
Despite the officers’ responses, the creator says the venue eventually returned his ID after roughly two hours. “The venue kept trying to have me removed from the property,” he wrote. “Until they gave up and gave me id after 2 hours of waiting and trying to get the police to do something.”
The nightclub and security company are not identified in the post, and their version of what happened is not included in the circulating videos.
The man ultimately got his REAL ID back before his scheduled flight, but only after what he described as a two-hour dispute with venue security and multiple conversations with police. For viewers, the lingering question wasn’t whether he would get the card back. It was why getting it returned became such an ordeal in the first place.
