Minors a Major Aid in Liquor Sales Crackdown

Teen-agers with a few dollars in their pockets have managed to do what scores of uniformed police officers could not --stop Massachusetts liquor stores from selling alcohol to minors.

Youths working undercover for police have nabbed at least 50 stores this year for selling liquor to customers under the legal drinking age of 21, police say.

One 18-year-old bought liquor from every one of 14 liquor stores in Wareham she visited.

A 19-year-old scored in 18 of 20 Wellfleet stores. “The kid looked like a cherub,” said Police Detective Arthur Parker in the Cape Cod town.

Provincetown Police Chief James Meads said he started stings five years ago with an 18-year-old summer employee who is now a state trooper in Vermont.

“I had him go to every package store in Provincetown,” he said. “I would say a lot of them were in violation, about 40%.”

The stores got off with warnings then, he said.

“When (store owners) get caught, they call them baby-faced goons,” he said “But some places actually commended me for putting their help on notice. They thought it was an excellent idea, especially since I wasn’t taking anybody to court.”

Other stores haven’t been so lucky. Selectmen in Wareham suspended the liquor licenses of two stores and put 12 more on probation after a spring sting. The stores in the town north of Cape Cod all sold beer, wine and hard liquor to 18-year-old Geraldine Bartlett.

Told that some store owners claimed she looked older, Bartlett replied: “I still have acne.” She said she volunteered for the assignment after a friend died in a drunk-driving accident.

In Weymouth, high school students with similar motives volunteered to work undercover for police in a sting operation started by the Weymouth News & Gazette. Louise Levin-Cutler, general manager of the paper, said she watched most of the transactions while pretending to look over wine.

“No one asks them anything,” she said. “They just walk up and put their money on the counter. No way they look even close to 21.”

Even when stores aren’t caught, the sting operations have helped enforce the law. Some liquor chains, such as Blanchard’s Liquors Inc., have begun demanding picture IDs from every customer, even retirees.