If you’re buying beer or renting a car, you probably understand why someone would want to see a photo ID. But Consumerist reader GyroMight was perplexed when he went to pick up some aerosol computer duster at Target and had to fork over his license to make the purchase.

Tell us all what happened, Gyro:

Just got back from Target where we had to pick up some odds and ends including some canned air to keep the inside of my computer dust free. When we got to the checkout counter, the lady asked for my driver’s license. I was a little confused since we had not picked up any alcohol and she was in the middle of scanning our items so she wasn’t asking for it to compare against my credit card. I guess she picked up on my confused look as she mentioned it was for the canned air and made a remark about “what kids are doing these days”. Since I was with my wife I decided not to make a big deal about it, but I don’t really enjoy just handing over my id for it to be scanned and kept in some sort of database, kept somewhere out in cyber space or in some company’s server to do with god knows what.

We don’t know if GyroMight ever saw the below episode of “Intervention,” but we’re guessing situations like this are the reason why Target is checking IDs on computer duster:

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