Carroll County's Board of License Commissioners fined two Eldersburg businesses yesterday for selling alcohol to minors during a routine investigation of several establishments during the weekend of Oct. 7.
Board investigators caught five restaurants and liquor stores during the sweep, when Maryland State Police cadet Bryan Alford Pearre, 19, tried to purchase beer.
In most cases, Mr. Pearre showed the clerk his driver's license, which has a profile photograph indicating he is younger than 21. The clerks sold him the beer anyway.
Yesterday, owners of the Eldersburg Inn on Liberty Road and Carrolltowne Liquors in Carrolltown Center each received a $500 fine at uncontested hearings.
Board members halved the fine for Carrolltowne Liquors because the owner, William S. Rowe Jr. of Owings Mills, had fired the cashier who sold Mr. Pearre the alcohol. In addition, Mr. Rowe has hired Mystery Shoppers USA, a Virginia company that sends customers into the store to test whether clerks will ask for identification before making a sale.
But Mr. Rowe acknowledged that seven of nine clerks tested by the company since June failed to ask the customer for identification.
"I still think this is helpful, because it gives me a reference," Mr. Rowe said. "I take the clerk aside and expound on the importance of checking identification. I use it as an arguing point."
In the Carrolltowne Liquors case, Mr. Pearre tried to purchase a ++ quart of Budweiser beer about 7 p.m. Oct. 7. Cashier Carrie Ann Cavey, 23, sold him the alcohol without asking for identification.
At 12:17 the next afternoon, Mr. Pearre tried to purchase a Coors Light beer from Tracey Lee Leather, 27, a cashier at Eldersburg Inn. Although Ms. Leather checked the cadet's identification, she sold him the alcohol anyway. Later, Ms. Leather told investigators she had misread the license because she was not wearing her contact lenses. She also told them she had realized her mistake and was about to take the beer back when she was approached by a liquor board investigator.