Decoy helps alcohol sting cite 3 vendors

Authorities caught three alcohol establishments in the city selling alcohol to underage minors during a sting operation Thursday night, police said Friday.

Using an 18-year-old “decoy,” Newport Beach Det. Bryan Moore and an investigator from the California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control visited 16 off-sale alcohol establishments through Newport Beach. Off-sale locations are liquor stores and convenient stores that sell alcohol to drink off the premises.

Out of the 16 locations where the decoy attempted to buy alcohol, only three sold to him because they did not check his ID, Sgt. Evan Sailor said. Police declined to say which stores had clerks accused of failing to check for IDs.

The businesses that failed to ask for an ID could be fined up to $1,000. ABC determines the fine by the store’s gross alcohol sales.

The goal of stings like this is to educate and remind businesses that police are enforcing the law and to ensure all alcohol establishments will comply with the law, Sailor said.

Thanks to a $100,000 grant from the state, Moore, in conjunction with ABC officials, will conduct nearly 20 different stings in the city over the next year.

Their tactics will range from minor decoys like Thursday’s “shoulder-tap” stings, in which minors ask adults to buy alcohol for them, to undercover stings in which undercover police monitor popular drinking spots in plain clothes, officials said.

The three locations were cited for serving alcohol to a minor.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.