He may have looked old enough...but the person trying to buy alcohol at 55 liquor stores in Grand Junction and Orchard Mesa was under the legal age to buy alcohol.
At 13 of those stores his identification was not checked, and as a result 14 clerks were arrested by an undercover officer and released with a summons to court. The program is the most wide–spread attempt so far to cite those who illegally sell alcohol to underage buyers, and is the result of a new federal grant to the Grand Junction Police Department.
Although the number of stores cited for underage sales sounds like a lot, police department spokesperson Linda Bowman says it's less than one–quarter of the number of stores checked for compliance. She adds that the City of Grand Junction offers free training to clerks on identifying underage drinkers...and so there is no excuse for stores to sell alcohol illegally.
