Five shops and restaurants in Columbia, Ellicott City and North Laurel have been cited for selling alcohol to underage customers, according to the Howard County Police Department.
The businesses are 7-Eleven on Frederick Road in Ellicott City, which was also charged with failing to have an alcohol awareness-certified manager on premises and failing to display an alcohol awareness certificate; Absolutely Wine & Spirits in Columbia; All Saints Liquors in North Laurel; Owen Brown Wine & Spirits in Columbia, which was also charged with failing to display an alcohol awareness certificate; and Zapata's Restaurant in Columbia, which is also facing two charges of selling to a minor and a charge of failing to display an alcohol awareness certificate.
They will be called before the Alcohol Beverage Hearing Board for violating hearings, police said.
The violations stem from a police test conducted Sept. 22 in which volunteers, one 19 years old and the other 17, entered the businesses and tried to purchase alcohol. The five cited businesses did not ask the teenagers for their driver's licenses and sold them alcohol despite the customers being underage, police said.
Nine other businesses passed the test, police said, by asking for the volunteers' driver's licenses and then refusing to sell them alcohol. Those businesses are: Dobbin Square Liquors, Oakland Mills Liquors and Snowden River Liquors in Columbia; Montpelier Liquors in Fulton; U.S. 1 Liquors, Wings Sports Café and Woody's Liquor & Bar in Jessup; Friendship Liquors in West Friendship; and, Your Wine & Spirit Shoppe in Woodstock.