KFDA - NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo, TX: newschannel10.comWarrants On The Way To Clerks Selling To Minors

Warrants On The Way To Clerks Selling To Minors

Megan Moore
NewsChannel 10

Amarillo, Texas - People who possibly put your teenagers in danger by selling them alcohol will soon face the music.

22 cases are in the hands of the Potter County Attorney, who will soon draw up warrants and send deputies out knocking.

The chief deputy says store clerks knowingly sold alcohol to teenagers during the sting. Some clerks never asked for identification, others saw the underage ID and sold the kids the booze anyway.

In fact, some clerks sold the teenagers alcohol as many as three times. Chief Deputy Roger Short says, "the ones with the three timers, that's who we really are working to identify, and we do that and once we arrest those people, we can bring them out of touch with our kids, hopefully."

As for the stores and/or their owners, depending on how many times they sold to minors, they could be suspended for up to ten days.

Meaning, for liquor stores, they would pretty much have to shut down. They also could be forced to pay a $300 per day fine.

Short says in light of last weekend's sting, some stores have contacted the Sheriff's Office asking for deputies to come in and train their store staff to make sure they are not selling to minors.

While Short hopes this slows down selling to teenagers, kids we spoke with say their peers will find a way to get alcohol.  Often, they say, kids' own parents will provide it to them.  If it's not the parents, it is the siblings or older friends.