Piece of VideoJS behaving strangely

gistfile1.js

    // Adjust for jQuery ID syntax
    if (id.indexOf("#") === 0) { 
      id = id.slice(1);
    }    

    // If a player instance has already been created for this ID return it.
    console.log(_V_.players); // Object that appears to have one property Class named example_video_1 
    console.log(id); // example_video_1
    console.log(_V_.players[id]); // undefined 
    if (_V_.players[id]) {
      console.log('This never fires'); // Does what it says on the tin
      return _V_.players[id];

    // Otherwise get element for ID
    } else {
      tag = _V_.el(id)
    }