Posted on 05/11/2006 3:19:12 PM PDT by Momaw Nadon
DANVERS — The brown SUV rolled to a stop in a Holten Street parking lot as two 17-year-old high school students in the back seat emptied their pockets of everything except their cell phones and a $20 bill.
They wouldn't need much more to buy a pack of cigarettes in Danvers.
The girl, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, stepped into the pouring rain, approached a sales clerk at the Mobil gas station and returned moments later with a pack of Marlboro Reds.
The two teens work undercover for the North Shore Tobacco Control Program, the regional agency that regularly conducts stings at gas stations, convenience stores and supermarkets to see whether they sell cigarettes to underage kids. Customers must be 18 to buy cigarettes legally.
Tuesday night, the teens canvassed Danvers for three hours with director Joyce Redford, hitting 25 of the 37 establishments in town with permits to sell tobacco products.
On the first check of the night, the Mobil on Holten Street appeared to fail, marking its fourth violation since February 2004. Now, the establishment faces a $300 fine and a 30-day suspension of its permit to sell tobacco products, Redford said.
The 17-year-old girl, "Ann" — the teens requested their middle names be used to protect their identity — described the store clerk to Redford, then handed her the cigarette box after marking it as evidence.
Moments later, Redford confronted the Mobil employee and issued a citation.
"I'm Joyce Redford with the Board of Health," she said to a store clerk sitting inside a kiosk talking on his cell phone. "Yeah, it would probably be a good idea to put that down.
"We just sent a 17-year-old over here to buy a pack of cigarettes, and you sold them to her," she said.
The clerk was silent.
"This is your fourth offense," she said.
The girl had told him her mother was waiting in the car, the store clerk said.
Then he changed his story.
"I always check IDs," he said. "Honestly, I saw her walking in the rain and felt bad for her."
"That's no excuse," Redford said.
Like all the establishments caught in the tobacco stings, the Holten Street Mobil has a chance to fight the charge — much like a driver can contest a traffic ticket — by requesting a public hearing with the Board of Health. The board has the ultimate authority to level fines and suspensions.
No cigar
Redford and the two teens crisscross town, hitting Danvers Square, Danversport and the Liberty Tree Mall.
Before he could even ask for a Phillies Blunt at Cigars 'R' Us, "Ryan" — a clean-shaven 17-year-old wearing a white baseball cap, hooded sweatshirt, jeans and a blue jacket vest — was asked to produce an ID and told to leave when he could not.
But when he walked into a Sunoco gas station on Route 114 with Ann, they were able to buy a pack of cigarettes even after admitting they didn't have identification, they said. Redford issued the store a $100 fine — its first offense — then ordered the clerk to remove packs of cigarettes and a tobacco display sitting on the counter, which is also prohibited.
Both of the teens have been working undercover for a year or more, earning $7 an hour and spending one or two nights a week stinging the 500 establishments in nine North Shore communities that sell tobacco. They're instructed never to lie, but they are given leeway. If asked whether they have ID, they can shrug their shoulders, for example.
The idea is to make the encounter as realistic as possible, as if it's any other teen trying to buy cigarettes underage. Before conducting their first sting, the teens train for a night, observe other stings and role-play.
"It has to look like a natural sale," Redford said.
Both teens said the experience has taught them how to think on their feet. Ann even plans to change her major from nursing to criminal justice when she goes to college in the fall.
"I feel like I'm making a difference," Ryan said. "I wouldn't want my kids to be able to buy cigarettes. I feel like it's protecting others."
Five caught selling
All told, the teens caught five local businesses selling cigarettes to minors in Danvers Tuesday night — a compliance rate of 80 percent, which is lower than normal, Ryan said.
Despite several signs posted at the counter prohibiting underage tobacco sales, Ann was able to buy a pack of cigarettes from a teenage employee at the Stop & Shop at the Liberty Tree Mall, she said. Redford issued the supermarket a $100 fine for its first offense.
And both the New Bridge Variety & Deli and Concord Gas in Danversport received $200 fines and face seven-day suspensions for their second violations in less than a year.
Jim El, the owner of Concord Gas, said yesterday that he's always careful to card everyone, but plans to pay the fine. He said his brother was watching the store while he was away.
"I'm going to make sure it never, ever happens again," El said.
Owners of the other establishments caught in the sting could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Ryan said the problem is usually one of carelessness, rather than any intent to flout the law.
"There are very few establishments that want to sell to kids or get kids hooked," Ryan said. "They just aren't paying attention."
Secret agents
Names: "Ryan" and "Ann"
Age: 17
Job: Conducting undercover tobacco stings at North Shore establishments
Scariest moment: At a Lynn gas station, a store clerk suspected Ryan was working undercover after selling him a pack of cigarettes. "You better not cost me $100, or I'll kill you," he said. The store was later cited. "I just looked at him, took the change and walked away," he said. "I was scared."
Most unusual moment: A Danvers merchant once ordered Ann to smoke a cigarette in front of the store to prove that she wasn't an undercover worker.
Most hair-raising moment: In Lynn, a store owner became so enraged by a violation that he began banging on the back windshield of the van where the teens were hiding after they had made the sale.
Isn't paying a underage person to get you cigarettes "contributing to the delinquency of a minor"?
Had this tried on me numerous times when I was in college working at a C-Store. It's just part of the job.
I meant to add that this type of sting was never done with beer sales. Not sure why.
It's entrapment, and any conviction resulting from these nazi-like tactics should be struck down.
$7.00 an hour, huh? Just enough to buy a six pack of beer.
Something isn't right.
"The girl had told him her mother was waiting in the car, the store clerk said."
....
"They're instructed never to lie, but they are given leeway."
What about police posing as 14 year old girls online to catch predators? Those convcitions stick.
Note that the clerk changed his story. It's entirely possible that he was lying.
That ruled out cheerleading and WAGS (Women and Gender Studies), and they all turned out successful and productive beyond all my expectations.
Not a hint of exaggerated importance of self or delusions about controlling others "for their own good". Being undercover sting agents, I must confess, never crossed my mind. Was not even on my long distance radar.
I feel like an abject failure!
I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing, but how is it different from prostitution and drug stings when the police use an undercover officer?
Only if the defendant can prove that he was not predisposed to commit the crime, and that he would have been unwilling to do it but for the intervention of the government.
and any conviction resulting from these nazi-like tactics should be struck down.
"Nazi-like?" Are you serious?
Apparently not if you wear a badge and a gun and have the power of the state behind you.
Neighbors spying on neighbors to report anti-state behavior.
This is going on in every state and has been forever for both tobacco and alcohol. Why shouldn't they do checks because otherwise these lamebrained clerks and retailers will sell sell sell anything to anybody. It's all about making a buck.
Not really. I'm just sick and tired of this stupid crap that equates cigarettes with cocaine, where we need "stings" to stop underage smoking. I don't really think the cops are acting like nazis; they're just doing their job and enforcing the law at the behest of idiot politicians. But the anti-tobbacco movement as a whole is nazi-like. Their Goebbles-esque propaganda campaign could have been written by Leni Riefenstahl or Sergei Eisenstein.
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