They're not serious though, they are just clowning around.
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.
"It's entrapment"
ENTRAPMENT - A person is 'entrapped' when he is induced or persuaded by law enforcement officers or their agents to commit a crime that he had no previous intent to commit; and the law as a matter of policy forbids conviction in such a case.
However, there is no entrapment where a person is ready and willing to break the law and the Government agents merely provide what appears to be a favorable opportunity for the person to commit the crime. For example, it is not entrapment for a Government agent to pretend to be someone else and to offer, either directly or through an informer or other decoy, to engage in an unlawful transaction with the person. So, a person would not be a victim of entrapment if the person was ready, willing and able to commit the crime charged in the indictment whenever opportunity was afforded, and that Government officers or their agents did no more than offer an opportunity.
On the other hand, if the evidence leaves a reasonable doubt whether the person had any intent to commit the crime except for inducement or persuasion on the part of some Government officer or agent, then the person is not guilty.
In slightly different words: Even though someone may have [sold drugs], as charged by the government, if it was the result of entrapment then he is not guilty. Government agents entrapped him if three things occurred:
- First, the idea for committing the crime came from the government agents and not from the person accused of the crime.
- Second, the government agents then persuaded or talked the person into committing the crime. Simply giving him the opportunity to commit the crime is not the same as persuading him to commit the crime.
- And third, the person was not ready and willing to commit the crime before the government agents spoke with him.
On the issue of entrapment the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not entrapped by government agents.
http://www.lectlaw.com/def/e024.htm
How dare you slander the land of my ancestors?! It's "The People's Really Swell Republic of Massachusetts".
Government spending resources on sting operations to combat more non-crime. Why am I not surprised?
It's "The People's Really Swell Republic of Massachusetts".
I just got back from Boston: home to tens of thousands of spoiled mega-narcissistic dopey college girls, the astonishingly crooked Big Dig, drunken Kennedys, BS Artist extrodianire John Kerry, and a variety of other democrat party thieves who endlessly loot the tax rolls.
Add "and guys with Birkenstocks and gray ponytails" and you've described the land that I'll soon be fleeing perfectly.
I do agree that police resources could be better distributed elsewhere. Tracking sex offenders that brain-damaged judges have let back out into the streets would probably be a better move.
Were they successful in curbing illegal cigarette sales?
From the looks of it, all three points of entrapment are satisfied in these cases.
ping
Nanny State Ping!!!!!!!!!!!
Because of one of these stings a week or so ago at one of the local convenient stores - I've been having a bit of trouble buying cigarettes without being askedd for ID......and I'm 45!!!!!!!
I do not like these stings, that is not to say kids should be able to buy smokes or beer, but I don't like the idea of using minors. To me it sends a bad measure.......whatever happened to using "youthful" looking professionals?
We're raising a generation of busy body snitches who are being taught it's OK to break the law if it means catching someone else doing it.
"We're raising a generation of busy body snitches who are being taught it's OK to break the law if it means catching someone else doing it."
That's for sure, This is wrong.
Now, I am not advocating selling to under-age people, but to use minors is going too far.
"Whatever happened to using "youthful" looking professionals?"
It wouldn't bother me as much if that was the case.
But, using minors is wrong. I thought they cared about the "children".
Funny, they don't mention booze, isn't it? Now, I wouldn't agree with using minors in that senario, either.
It's just funny how it always has to be about tobacco.
If this isn't aunt nanny at her finest, I don't know what is.
The Stasi said he changed his story. But the reported facts do not establish that.
"Could I have some cigarettes. They are for my mother, waiting in the car"
"I still need to see ID."
"Oh I left it in tha car. Please don;t make be go back in the rain for it "
Perfecly consistant with:
The girl had told him her mother was waiting in the car, the store clerk said.
...
"I always check IDs," he said. "Honestly, I saw her walking in the rain and felt bad for her."
Why is this a problem? Don't they realize all these store clerks are doing is helping raise government revenue? I would think the governor would appreciate all the help.
Seriously, clerks better be watchful of this. Washington has been doing it for years on alcohol as well as cigarettes. I'm 57 and was actually carded just the other night. All I could do was smile and say thank you!
One of the classic lines from the Mary Tyler Moore Show
Mary heing held in jail for refusing to reveal a newssource. There's a working girl in the cell with her
Mary (brightly): "Why were you aressted?"
Hooker (dryly) "I fell in love with a cop"
OK, I understand where you're coming from. But seriously, when I worked at a chain pharmacy, I was an absolute stickler about seeing IDs when selling cigarettes. When I buy cigarettes now, I automatically have my ID in hand. (I look younger than I am.) It doesn't take an expert to check an ID. We expect the same thing of people working in liquor stores.
I bought my first pack of (purchased) cigarettes at the age of 9 from a vending machine for $0.25, and got a new penny inside the celphane wrapper for change.
What is this world coming to?
I guess pretty soon, we'll be conducting Twinky stings with fat people as the operatives at taxpayer expense.
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