18 Clerks Snared in Liquor-Sales Sting Using Underage Officer

Los Angeles police cited 18 North Hollywood store clerks for selling beer to a minor during a weekend sting operation aimed at cracking down on alcohol-related problems, authorities said Sunday.

Lt. Brad Merritt said the undercover operation made use of a 19-year-old reserve officer working with the vice squad from the Police Department’s North Hollywood Division.

Officers checked 50 outlets, including liquor stores, mini-marts and gas stations that sell alcohol, to see if clerks would sell a six-pack of beer to the underage officer, Merritt said.

“We ran a similar operation last February and that operation had a 66% sales rate,” Merritt said. “Tonight, it came out to 36%, so there’s been a decrease of about one-third.”

Merritt credited the decline to the widespread publicity of earlier sting operations and to meetings with store owners on liquor sales to minors.

In the February sting, only about one-third of the clerks asked an obviously underage customer for identification, he said.

On Saturday, however, about two-thirds of the clerks checked for proof of age.

“We had a case tonight where they asked for his ID, checked it and then turned around and sold it to him anyway,” Merritt said. He said the incident took place at a gas station store.

The sting involved the teen-ager taking a six-pack of beer to a cashier, placing it on the counter and waiting to see what the clerk would do.

“Some of the locations we hit we had cited in February,” Merritt said. “Some of them sold again, some of them didn’t. Some of them learned their lesson and some didn’t.”

Police checked liquor outlets in an area bounded by San Fernando Road on the north, Ventura Boulevard on the south, Coldwater Canyon on the west and Cahuenga Boulevard on the east between 7 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 a.m. Sunday, he said.

Store owners face fines or suspension or revocation of their licenses to sell alcohol.