You'd Think They'd Know When He Went In For A Pap Smear

San Clemente, CA

Perla Aldama Serrano, a 51-year-old transient in San Clemente, was arrested for identity theft earlier this week. Seems he's been using someone else's identity for the last 13 years to get medical care at various hospitals in the Orange County area to the tune of more than $100,000.00.

The weird part? It's a woman's identity.

Not only that, but he's been arrested before, giving his victim's name in some of those circumstances, forcing her to go to court and defend herself.

It took a cop finding him asleep in the park, asking his name and checking it against the name on the hospital ID bracelet he was still wearing from his latest visit. When they didn't match the cop called it in.

Now this raises all sorts of questions. Why do we have a medical system that requires someone to steal a name so that they can get health care? How can we justify the enormous number of homeless on our streets in a country as prosperous as ours the 21st Century? How does Serran manage to keep those lips so soft and supple?

Of course, the real question is how he managed to keep this going for over a decade.

Considering the overwhelm of any emergency room in California there's a lot that can slip through the cracks. And ER docs usually have more things to worry about, like keeping people alive, than checking whether a patient is who they say he is.

But thirteen years? Really? A few rounds in the pokey and you'd think somebody would have noticed that the person in cuffs isn't the person who keeps coming to court. And if he ever went in for an extended hospital stay there's this thing called a catheter that they... well, you know.

Anyway, glad Mr. Serrano's ID thief has finally been found out. Now she just has to clean up the mess. I wish her the best of luck.