Though police officers must have probable cause to search for fake IDs, students should be wary of leaving anything with a false identity in plain view.

Five students who were pulled over for traffic violations in the past five months were charged with possession of a fake ID.

Police officers are trained to be observant, and if a fake ID is easily visible to the officer – such as being located behind the person’s legal ID – then the student can be charged with the misdemeanor, University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said in an interview Tuesday.

“It’s so prevalent, it’s hard not to find them,” Williamson said. However, “police aren’t targeting anyone.”

Chelsea Marthan Baer, a junior from Marietta, was charged with speeding and possession of a fake ID on Aug. 16, according to a police report.

“I didn’t even realize I had my fake ID behind my ID,” Baer

said Tuesday in a phone interview. She said she was sure the police officer was looking in her wallet when she pulled her driver’s license from its clear card holder. Her fake was easy to spot, she said.

A similar scenario happened to Khai Hoc Tran, who was pulled over for running a red light on Sept. 11. As he took out his driver’s license, the officer spotted his fake ID behind a picture in his wallet, the police officer reported.

Thomas Hale Avery, a sophomore from Atlanta, was driving without a license when he approached a police checkpoint, Avery said Tuesday in a phone interview. He “freaked out” and left his car to walk through the woods to a doctor’s appointment at the University Health Center. Avery’s passenger drove the car and was pulled over at the checkpoint by an officer who saw the stopped car, according to a police report.

A police officer stopped Avery in the woods. The officer asked for his license, and Avery said he did not have one with him.

The officer asked him to take out his wallet, and Avery showed the empty clear card holder that held his license.

The officer took the wallet from him and began asking about other cards, such as debit cards and his University ID, Avery said.

After the officer finished “nosing around,” Avery said the officer reached behind a hidden slot and pulled out his fake ID.

Avery was arrested and charged with misdemeanor possession of a fake ID, according to the report.

Avery hired a lawyer and explained what happened during the search. The charge was later dropped due to illegal searching by the officer, he said.

Avery said even though the charge was dropped, it was still a hassle to pay for a lawyer and go through the trial process.

Officers must have “probable cause” to search a suspect’s property, Williamson said.

Alexander Mark Busko, a junior from Atlanta and staff writer for The Red & Black, was charged with possession of a fake ID after he was pulled over for an expired registration tag on Aug. 9, according to a police report.

The officer noticed a fake ID in Busko’s wallet when he asked Busko for identification, the police report said.

Busko said the officer asked to look in his closed wallet, which was sitting on the middle console in his vehicle, after checking his identification.

Tess Alexandra Vincent, a junior from Suwanee, was arrested Sept. 11 and charged with possession of a fake ID after she was pulled over for speeding, according to a police report.

The officer saw her fake ID behind her real ID after he pulled her over, the report said.

Vincent could not be reached for comment Tuesday.