25 Liquor Store Clerks Cited for Sales to Minors

An underage Los Angeles police employee was able to buy beer at 25 of 67 liquor stores in the northwest San Fernando Valley that were targeted in a two-day crackdown on illegal alcohol sales, police said Saturday.

Two clerks were arrested on outstanding warrants and citations were issued to the remaining store clerks who sold beer illegally to the 19-year-old police employee during the undercover operation, Sgt. Ken Kreider said. The operation, which included stores in Granada Hills, Northridge and Chatsworth, was conducted Dec. 21 and Friday.

Selling alcohol to people under 21 years of age is a misdemeanor in California.

“The stores we targeted were locations that had a general reputation of making sales to minors,” Kreider said. “We got the word from direct complaints about the sales and from previous violations.”

An unidentified woman arrested at a Granada Hills liquor store during the operation had an outstanding warrant from a previous arrest for selling alcohol to a minor, Kreider said. “This is the fifth time in six months that she’s sold alcohol to a juvenile,” he said. She was arrested on charges of failing to appear at a previous court hearing on an illegal sales charge.

A man who also sold beer during the undercover operation was arrested on an outstanding warrant unrelated to illegal alcohol sales, Kreider said.

Kreider said it will take more such undercover operations to reduce the percentage of stores that apparently sell alcohol to minors. He said the practice is not only illegal, but it also endangers the lives of both the youths who consume the alcohol and of local residents.

“During Christmas, Easter and summer vacations, all of our available time is consumed by the shenanigans and carrying on of young people around here who buy alcohol and then race around in their parents’ expensive sports cars,” Kreider said.

In a related operation, undercover officers attempted to buy ammunition from 10 area gun stores last week. But none of the clerks at the stores violated the city ordinance that prohibits the sale of ammunition for the seven days prior to Jan. 1. The law is an attempt to reduce the number of people who discharge weapons into the air on New Year’s Eve.

“We had no violators, but a couple of the stores referred us to the cities of San Fernando and Simi Valley,” Kreider said, where the ammunition sales prohibition would not apply.