Five Stores Cited In Underage

Alcohol Sting Operation

By Andrew Gorosko

Five of 16 local retail alcohol outlets illegally sold beer to underage undercover buyers in a sting operation conducted in the late afternoon and early evening of Saturday, November 4, police said.

Agents from the state Liquor Control Commission, town police, and underage agents employed by the state participated in the sting operation, said Acting Police Chief Michael Kehoe.

The underage agents were able to buy beer at Big Y Supermarket, 6 Queen Street; Grand Union Supermarket, 5 Queen Street; Stop & Save Liquor of Newtown in Sand Hill Plaza on South Main Street; Pootatuck Spirits, LLC, 102 Church Hill Road; and Hilario’s Super Center and Variety Store, 131 Mt Pleasant Road.

Police did not file criminal charges, Acting Chief Kehoe said. The Liquor Control Commission will pursue the liquor violations administratively with the alcohol sales permit holders of the five businesses, he said.

Such violations may result in steep fines or other penalties, said Detective Robert Tvardzik. Also, the state will note other liquor violations which were found at the five businesses during the sting operation, he said.

The penalties to be levied against the businesses will be the decision of the Liquor Control Commission. The legal age to buy alcohol is 21. The underage agents are in their late teens.

None of the five clerks in the establishments, which sold beer to underage buyers, asked the buyers for any identification before selling them the beer, according to police.

Clerks at the 11 businesses which refused to sell beer to the underage agents asked those agents for identification. When the agents presented identification which indicated that they were underage, those clerks refused to sell beer to them, police said.

Products which have sales restrictions based on age, such as alcohol and tobacco, when passed through an electronic price scanner, can cause an audible tone to sound, to alert sales clerks of the age restrictions on the sale of those products.

Stores which sell alcohol should be very careful not sell it to underage persons, so as not to jeopardize their alcohol sales permits, Acting Chief Kehoe said.

The Liquor Control Commission has been conducting such alcohol sting operations in area towns recently.

“I’m happy they [state] are able to do this with us,” Acting Chief Kehoe said, noting that sting operations help local police seriously address the problems posed by underage drinking.

 Det Tvardzik said he did not expect that as many as five local retail alcohol outlets would sell beer to underage buyers, representing more than 30 percent of the stores which the underage agents entered in the operation.

The operation included four police officers, five liquor control agents, three underage agents who sought to buy the beer, and a supervisor for the three underage agents.

“We don’t want anything going bad. We’re taking all the precautions necessary so nobody gets hurt,” Acting Chief Kehoe said of the need for more than a dozen people in such operations.

 In a September sting operation, town police criminally charged four employees of four local stores with infractions for illegally selling cigarettes to underage buyers. The legal age for tobacco purchases is 18.

In that sting operation, local police teamed up with the tobacco compliance unit of the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS).

Underage undercover agents sanctioned by DMHAS entered 30 local businesses attempting to buy cigarettes and were able to purchase cigarettes at four businesses. Such criminal tobacco sales violations are subject to $200 fines.