A 16-year-old white boy using the identification of a 31-year-old black man was served alcohol by two out of 15 businesses visited during an alcohol compliance check conducted by the Carson City Sheriff's Department recently.
"This just proves the point that some of our servers are absolutely not paying attention to obvious signs," said Sheriff Kenny Furlong. "This is absolutely ridiculous. Juveniles are going to continuously make efforts to get alcohol and the only thing that stands between the juveniles and the booze is the server."
Servers at Ming's Chinese Restaurant and the AM/PM Mini Mart at 4190 S. Carson Street, sold the teen alcohol despite his presenting the bogus identification on Feb. 1, said Deputy Jarrod Adams, organizer of the compliance check.
Because this was the first time the compliance checks used identification other than the juvenile's, the offenders were only warned and not cited. Next time, they will be issued a $632 citation.
In previous compliance checks, the decoys presented their own identification which showed they were underage.
The businesses that passed the test were both Albertsons grocery stores on North and South Carson streets., Applebees, Reds Old 395, Finucci's Grand Central Pizza & Pasta, Mo and Sluggo's, Sparky's, Capital City Liquors, and the Frontier Motel, AM/PM on North Carson Street, AM/PM at 720 S. Carson Street, Gas and Save, Shell Gas on South Carson Street and Woody's.
Furlong said the outcome of this last check proves that more training is necessary for servers of alcohol in Carson City.
"In our community, we rely on these servers to check ID, not just pick up the card and hold it in front of their faces," he said.
The Carson City Sheriff's Department will be offering server training 10 a.m. to noon March 6. To register for the class, contact Linda Lang at 882-6674.