28 Young People Arrested at ‘Four-Kegger’

Twenty-eight young people were arrested Saturday night at a Fountain Valley industrial park just as a so-called “drop party” was getting started, police said Sunday.

Lt. Mike Hanrahan said police heard about the party Friday from Fountain Valley High School officials, who found a flyer that had been circulating among students. The flyer advertised the “four-kegger” party planned for a fenced industrial area at Kalama River and Mount Shay streets in Fountain Valley.

Hanrahan said about 250 young people had shown up by 8:36 p.m. Saturday when six officers also arrived and began making arrests. Those arrested were trapped inside the chain-link fence.

“The fence worked out nicely,” Hanrahan said.

Police told the rest in the crowd who had not yet gone inside the fenced area to leave, Hanrahan said.

Hanrahan said he was unsure of the origin of the name “drop party” but thought it might have come from the method of operation of the party’s organizers, who “drop” into an industrial area with kegs of beer and music and then charge for admission.

The youths arrested Saturday were booked for trespassing. All but eight were juveniles. One of those arrested also was charged with violating city noise ordinances--Hanrahan said he was in charge the sound equipment set up for the party--and another youth was charged with furnishing false information to a police officer.

Hanrahan said police are becoming concerned about “drop parties,” which he said appeared to be on the increase--because beer usually is provided. After some of the parties, police find huge numbers of empty beer cups, he said.

“When we get that many people consuming that much beer, we’re going to have drunk-driving accidents,” Hanrahan said.

Police in Anaheim on Sunday said that they are familiar with the phenomenon of “drop parties” among juveniles in their area.

“We’re familiar with that kind of party, but we call them ‘keggers,’ ” said Anaheim police Sgt. David Severson. “It’s against the law for people to buy beer for a private party and then charge admission, so we can usually arrest people on that.

“Those parties can be very bad because there’s no one there to supervise or see how intoxicated people are getting.”