The account is nearly empty—no name, no other videos, just one night that went sideways. Under the handle @chillguy123970, a TikTok user documents what he calls a two-hour ordeal outside Brooklyn Storehouse, the sprawling Navy Yard venue, after a bouncer took his real ID at the door and refused to hand it back.
Man’s Real ID Gets Taken by Security
By the time the camera rolls, the creator has already been turned away and is pleading with responding NYPD officers. His ID is real, he insists—it was just issued in another state. “If it was a fake ID,” he says, “obviously we wouldn’t be here begging you guys.”
The officers won’t retrieve it and don’t seem particularly excited to help him. One suggests he collect the security company’s contact information and pursue it himself. He says he tried and that staff told his group to leave, then blocked them from going back inside.
“They stole my property,” he says. “They told me to get off the property.”
Do You Know the Law?
He presses the officer: isn’t it wrong—illegal, even—to keep someone’s valid ID? The officer allows that a fake might be different but sidesteps the rest.
On-screen text says a police supervisor turned up and also declined to help. In another post, the creator accuses an officer of trying to intimidate him with a “two-minute staring contest.”
Making matters worse, he says he had a flight home the next morning. He turns the account into a public warning, captioning the venue “do not come here.” By his own later account, he recovered the ID—but only after roughly two hours.
‘So As a Security Guard, I Can Steal Stuff?’
In the OG clip, commenters argued it was illegal for the bouncer to take the man’s ID.
A person wrote, “It’s a state document you can’t take it unless it’s fake.”
Others latched onto the female officer’s comments that the bouncer was allowed to take the ID because he was working security for the venue.
“So according to this cop, as long as you work somewhere you can take something from a customer and its ok,” a commenter said.
In the comments section of the clip with the supervisor, a person added, “You wouldn’t call the cops if it’s a fake ID; you would just take the loss. That’s literally a felony. They’re just lazy as hell.”
What is extremely curious is the officers’ collective reticence.
“Is the club owned by the mob or something? Wtf is going on??,” one person asked. “How are they acting like they can’t do anything??? Why do they keep saying ‘if it’s real’??? Dude, I would’ve lost my mind.”
Again, he did end up with his card, which makes the whole thing extremely odd.
Above the Law?
New York’s guidance for alcohol licensees is blunt: Venues aren’t authorized to confiscate an ID they suspect is fake—they’re told to refuse the sale and notify police, not seize the card. A genuine license has even less standing behind the door. So, both officers were wrong.
Nor is “they work here” a shield. After a Poughkeepsie bar’s unlicensed bouncer was filmed assaulting a patron, the State Liquor Authority suspended its license.
Deputy Counsel Lisa Ogden said the agency would “take immediate action against any licensee” whose staff endanger patrons. Even the guards are regulated—and the venue answers for them.
And keeping the card isn’t standard. Frank Wang, a Philadelphia bouncer, told The Daily Pennsylvanian he turns fakes away but has given confiscated ones back at the end of the night.
Subplot News reached out to @chillguy123970 via TikTok direct message and comment and to the NYPD, Brooklyn Storehouse, and the NY State Liquor Authority via email. We will update this story if any party responds.
@chillguy123970 Luke and max dean in nyc #foryoupage #fyp ♬ original sound – chillguy123
