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SLO grocery store worker cited for selling alcohol to minor

July 6, 2023

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

San Luis Obispo police officers cited a worker at grocery store last week for selling alcohol to a minor.

On June 29, with assistance from California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control agents, the San Luis Obispo Police Department conducted a sting targeting grocery, liquor and convenience stores. Officers sent a minor into 30 stores to attempt to purchase alcohol. If asked, the minor was truthful about his/her age and presented an actual ID card, according to police.

Twenty-nine of the 30 stores did not sell alcohol to the minor. Only Sprouts Farmers Market did so.

Officers cited a Sprouts Farmers Market worker for the violation and released the person at the scene.

“Underage drinking harms our community,” Sergeant Joe Hurni said in a statement. “Preventing the sale of alcohol to minors will help to increase public safety and make our roads safer.”

Funding for the sting came from a California Office of Traffic Safety grant that was administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.


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What age did the ID indicate? 20 1/2 years old? 20 and 11 months? Worker may have simply been a little inattentive, and had no intention of breaking the law. That’s the problem with sting operations. People who would never break the law and it being tricked into doing so.


4

In California a minor is under 18.

Selling alcohol to a minor is illegal, the ABC considers a minor under 21.

If the decoy is over 18 and the charge is as stated selling to a minor, I call BS.

If the charge is selling to an underage person, let’s stop the “Minor” lies, it was used five times in this article.


1

I’d like to know if they ever target pot shops with a sting operation.


16

As much as I personally wish it was; going to the “pot shop” isn’t like going to the grocery store lol. There’s security, id scan check in, locked doors, and typically “budtenders” that are the only ones to handle the merchandise. Ten times safer as far as minors being sold inappropriate products.


0

Good to know.


0

Of course they go after somebody with a job that probably makes very little money to make ends meet. They know someone with a job will pay the fines. Easier to ignore open drug use that’s killing people left and right because the local gov knows they won’t pay the fines.


31

So you don’t want alcohol law’s enforced?


“1,224 busted for DUI, 68 killed on California roads during Fourth of July weekend”


-6

Never said that. The laws should be applied equally. If they do drug sweeps in homeless encampments or ticket drug users for being intoxicated in public spaces the citations would be way more than 1 in 30.


“Across the state, one in five deaths of California’s teenagers and young adults (ages 15-24) are tied to fentanyl. Drug overdoses now kill two to three times as many people in the state as car accidents, according to data compiled by the consulting group California Health Policy Strategies”


19

I think there is also a deterrence factor. Busting some homeless people for minor drug possession won’t change that groups behavior (unfortunately). Do a sting operation once every year or two and it’ll be a stark reminder for youth attempting to buy alcohol and stores who might slack on ID checks; Sprouts won’t be allowing this to happen again. It’s a good PR move and, although I don’t know if it’s how SLO PD does these, it’s often tied with a youth education component.


-3

Why don’t we do drug sweeps through your neighborhood? Check for illegal firearms and unpermitted home improvements not assessed towards property taxes? I mean why should poor people who can’t afford a home be subject to police harassment that you’re not?


4

What a waste of resources. Wouldn’t the time spent on this boondoggle return better value for the community if the police were looking to reduce the real harm caused by drug dealers and users? I guess real police work is just too difficult.


27

JohnnyBoy:  “I guess real police work is just too difficult.”


-11