Undercover, They Look for Underage

The young woman strolled into a Simi Valley convenience store, picked up a four-pack of wine cooler and carried it to the checkout counter.

“Do you have any ID?” the cashier asked.

“No.”

“Well, you look OK,” said the cashier, who rang up the sale and put the wine cooler in a brown paper bag.

The cashier was wrong. The young woman was not “OK.” She was an 18-year-old decoy working undercover for the Simi Valley Police Department. Watching the sale from the checkout line was Sgt. Arch Morgan, dressed in blue jeans and a polo shirt, who entered the store moments after the decoy.

Stepping forward to identify himself, Morgan informed the surprised cashier that she had just sold alcohol to a minor and would be issued a misdemeanor citation. California law prohibits selling alcohol to anyone under age 21.

Stores Face Fines, License Suspension

The sale was not an isolated case. Of the 17 Simi Valley stores police visited on a recent night, eight sold bottled wine cooler to the decoy. The businesses face sanctions ranging from fines to suspension or revocation of their licenses by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Many nearby police departments, including those in Los Angeles, Burbank and San Fernando, investigate establishments only when they receive complaints, but Simi Valley takes an active role in trying to curb the sale of alcohol to minors.

Simi Valley police are under no illusions that the undercover operations stop teen-agers from drinking, Morgan said, but he believes they discourage clerks from selling to underage customers. Until the eight citations issued last month, the numbers had been declining, and in the previous decoy operation in June, only four of 28 stores sold to minors.

The operations, which have been used by Simi Valley police for several years, are straightforward, Morgan said. “We don’t do anything fancy or tricky.”

The department hires an 18-year-old or 19-year-old, who is photographed at the police station before the operation starts in case a citation goes to court.

An Alcoholic Beverage Control officer later meets the decoy to make sure that police are using someone who should be checked for proof of age, Morgan said.

Officers also make a point of checking establishments of all sizes, from supermarkets and chain drugstores to small, mom-and-pop outfits.

In the most recent operation, the decoy was a Simi Valley college drama student, wearing blue jeans and a pink blouse. She was teamed with Morgan and Officer Joe Brimberry and was paid $20 for the night’s work.

As she tried to buy the wine cooler with police money, the officers would browse nearby or pick up a candy bar or soft drink and stand in line next to the decoy. Often she was not asked for identification. When she was, she said she didn’t have any.

Reactions from cashiers who sold to the decoy ranged from bemusement to anger.

At a supermarket, a clerk calmly accepted the decoy’s money in exchange for the wine cooler and then seemed stunned when Morgan identified himself.

“You’ve just sold alcoholic beverages to an 18-year-old,” Morgan told the clerk.

“No, I didn’t!” the clerk insisted--until Brimberry escorted the decoy back to the checkout stand for the visual confrontation.

Inside a convenience store, a clerk said, “I shouldn’t be doing this,” then rang up the sale, only to realize a minute later that she was right.

At a drive-in dairy store, an employee correctly told the decoy--who drove up in an unmarked police Pontiac Trans Am--that she would have to step out of the car to buy the wine cooler because it is against the law to sell alcohol to anyone in a vehicle. So the decoy got out and bought the four-pack while Morgan watched through binoculars from across the street. A citation followed.

At another store, a young cashier sat near tears in a small office as the officers wrote out a citation and the store management prepared her termination papers.

Owner Has Never Been Cited

One of the establishments that did pass the undercover check was Venture Liquors, where a sign below the cash register warns that IDs are necessary and there won’t be any argument about it.

Owner Nate Krichilsky, 75, said that he has never been cited but that it is sometimes hard to tell when to ask for a person’s ID.

“You take an average person and by looks you can’t tell within two, three or four years,” he said. “The theory is, if they’re under 99, card ‘em. That’s what I tell my people.”

If customers say they left their identification in the car, Krichilsky tells them to go get it. “At least seven out of 10 don’t come back because it’s not in the car,” he said. “It’s cheaper for me to lose the sale than it is to sell it to the minor or get in trouble.”

Krichilsky said the law should be changed to require anyone under 30 to show identification, to put the responsibility on the buyer rather than the seller.

Employees who sell to minors often receive a fine of about $140. Judges in some jurisdictions have thrown out such cases because of concerns that such actions by police are improper, but Morgan said the Simi Valley department has had no problem in Ventura County courts. Most defendants plead guilty and don’t go to trial.

Penalties for establishments that sell to minors vary, depending on the number of violations, how often they occur, the age of the buyers and whether the sales were willful or simple errors of judgment, said Stan Griffeth, ABC district administrator for Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. A first offense can bring a 15-day license suspension or a fine of $300 to $1,500 in lieu of suspension; repeat offenses can mean revocation of the license, he said.

For a first offense, the ABC normally would recommend suspension of an establishment’s alcoholic beverage license for 15 days, Griffeth said. The ABC often lets the establishment pay a fine of $300 and $1,500 in lieu of the suspension, as long as the recommended suspension is for 30 days or less, Griffeth said.

For a second offense within three years, the fine escalates to between $750 and $6,000, he said. The exact amount of the fine is based on 20% of the average daily gross sales of alcoholic beverages for that establishment, he said.

If the ABC recommends a license suspension of more than 30 days, however, suspension becomes mandatory. Third offenses normally result in a license suspension, and additional violations can result in revocation, Griffeth said.

Establishments Cited

During last month’s undercover operation, citations were issued at a K mart Discount Store, a Vons Market, a Ralphs Grocery, a 7-Eleven Food Store, a Thrifty Drug Store, a Stop & Go Market, a Chase Brothers Dairy and a California Spirit Outlet.

Clerks at nine other stores refused to sell to the decoy when she would not show identification. In addition to Venture Liquors, they were: Larwin Square Liquors, a Safeway Market, Simi Liquors, an AM-PM Mini Market, two 7-Elevens, a Stop & Go and a Thrifty Drug Store. Each received a letter saying that police had checked them and thanking them for their cooperation.

Representatives of Vons and Ralphs said they do not object to the undercover operation. Nor does Fred Ruff, president of the 2,000-member Southern California Retail Liquor Dealers Assn., as long as the decoys appear to be under 21.

“We agree that if they have dealers out there who are selling liquor to people under 21 they should be cited,” Ruff said.