Police suspect a Northwestern student bolted on her taxi fare Thursday night, leaving the driver with a phony driver’s license, police said.

The driver told police he picked up a passenger from downtown Chicago around midnight and arrived at McCulloch Hall, 2315 Sheridan Road, at 12:30 a.m., University Police Deputy Chief Dan McAleer said.

The passenger told the driver she needed to run into the residential hall to get money to pay the $51.40 fare. She left him a Massachusetts driver’s license as collateral.

When UP arrived on the scene at 1:10 a.m., they checked the license and found it hadexpired in November 2009. The name on the license also did not match the name of any NU student, McAleer said.

Police are investigating.

– S.K. DACHOWITZ