Students share stories about how their IDs went missing
Although many of the students who go through the CarolinaCard Office to pay the $35 replacement fee for a new card lose it in ordinary ways, the employees in the office have heard some crazy stories.
The most common time for students to lose their CarolinaCards is after a home football game, but many students also frequent the office after breaks. Employees say it’s typical to see repeat offenders in the office.
Most of the time students do not know where they left their card, but many students have dropped their card down elevator shafts. The office has even had a Clemson student call to say they had found a CarolinaCard.
The CarolinaCard Office charges $25 for damaged cards. The most common way for students to damage their cards is by chewing on it, employees said. Because of special technology in the card, the CarolinaCard usually does not work if a student has been chewing on it. Many students also come in with CarolinaCards that dogs have chewed holes in.
The CarolinaCard Office picks up any cards that the library, dining halls and similar areas have found and calls students who have lost their cards. Employees said they are also careful to look for students using a CarolinaCard that is not their own, an offense for which the bookstore has prosecuted individuals in the past.
Students’ stories
“I decided to stay in with my best friend to watch Disney movies, only to both get food poisoning. I decided to go home to recover, only to discover my car was stolen. So when the cops showed up around 3 a.m., I’m sure they assumed the worst. … (The cops) found my car a few hours later, trashed, wrecked and in a ditch. The missing contents: a stuffed animal, broken GPS and my CarolinaCard.”
— Emma Thompson, second-year theater student
“I’ve lost my Carolina Card twice, both times having it confiscated and immediately replaced by the employees at the Carolina Card Office. Once I had gone to the office because my bar code wasn’t scanning, and another time to discuss meal plan. The first-time person mentioned that since my hair and beard had grown out, I didn’t look like the picture on my card, so she retook my picture and gave me a new card. A few months later, I had cut off 8 inches of my hair and shaved my beard, when I strolled into the office to change my meal plan. At that time, a different woman noticed that my picture was drastically different from my current appearance, and I told her what happened last time I was in the CCO. So, she thought it would be a good idea for me to get yet another CarolinaCard with a new picture.”
— James Armstrong, fourth-year political science student
“I ended up losing my CarolinaCard right as I was going into Williams-Brice. After going through the entire security line, it was only minutes from kickoff and I didn’t have time to look for it. So I did the first thing I could think of — I started crying hysterically. The security officer must’ve felt bad for me, because he finally just let me in saying I could figure it out on Monday. My CarolinaCard was in my apartment the whole time.”
— Jessica Debiase, fourth-year nursing student
“So I accidentally left my CarolinaCard at the Russell House upstairs at the register after buying Chick-fil-A. Turns out that the lady working the register held onto the card and used it every time she had friends go through the line and spent all of the money on the card within a couple of days.”
— Andrew Clifford, former USC quarterback, May 2013 graduate
“I was coming back from a vacation with my friends and I was really tired, and I left my wallet and CarolinaCard in a sketchy gas station in Georgia. I never got my wallet or CarolinaCard back.”
— Lizze Utset, first-year international studies student