if ($array[$line]  =~ /0?.*?(RECORD .*)/){
   $record  = trim($1); # works correctly

   $array[$line+1] =~ /(\d+)(.*)/;
   $id      = trim($1); # works correctly
   $name    = trim($2); # works correctly

   # still looking at the "a" lines, sometimes there's a date, sometimes no date
   $array[$line+2] =~ /.*?(\d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{4})?(.*)/;
   $date    = trim($1); # when no date it's using the previous $1 that goes into $id
   $address = trim($2); # when no date it's using the previous $2 that goes into $name
   ... code continues ...