 David Menzies stands out front of a Petro-Canada station after being told by a clerk he had to provide a copy of his driver's licence in order to pay for $100 of gas with his Visa card. When he refused, police showed up at his house. (Dave Thomas, QMI Agency)   |
TORONTO - David Menzies came close to being arrested Saturday after refusing to give his driver's licence to a cashier at a Petro-Canada station.
"I went to a Petro-Canada in Richmond Hill with my nine-year-old son, Sean. I filled up the truck with gas and then went into the store with my son to buy him some candy and get a few lottery tickets," Menzies says.
"The clerk rings up the total, I give him my Petro-Points card and a valid Visa card. He then says because my purchase is over $100 he has to see my driver's licence."
The freelance journalist says he thought the request was odd, but he took his licence out of his wallet to show the cashier so he didn't hold up the people in line behind him.
But when the clerk insisted it was company policy that he had to write down the licence numbers, Menzies refused.
"This is a document I share with two parties only. The police and the MTO (ministry of transportation Ontario). If someone gets a licence and a credit card number, those are the keys to the castle in terms of identity theft."
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Menzies decided to forget about the candy and lottery tickets so his purchase would be under $100.
"I leave the gas bar and about 90 minutes later, the cops are knocking at my door. The doofus did not ring up the purchase and reported me for robbing the Petro-Canada, which I always do in my spare time with a nine-year-old accomplice," Menzies says.
"I was seething. But the cops were brutal to me, saying if I raise my voice, I'll be charged with disturbing the peace. Then one of the cops says if I cannot do the transaction in 30 seconds, he will cuff me."
Menzies says he would like the Ontario privacy commissioner to look into this matter.
"Any retailer asking to record driver's licence info is surely out of line. I say we expose this given the rampant upswing in ID theft these days," he says."I'm still shaking over this."
It is not company policy to demand a driver's licence for a purchase over $100, says Petro-Canada spokesman Michael Sutherland.
"The specifics of this incident will be looked into -- the individual will be spoken to so everyone understands the proper process," Sutherland said.
kevin.connor@sunmedia.ca
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