Media

Clerks Arrested in Poplar Avenue Area Beer Sting

Release Date: September 29, 2006

Sheriff’s Deputies and other officers with the Metro D.U.I. Squad visited businesses along various sections of Poplar Avenue last evening, September 28, 2006.

Deputies and other officers visited 25 businesses, which included convenience stores, grocery stores and liquor stores along Poplar Avenue between Danny Thomas and Highland Avenue.

Violations were noted at 1­­2 businesses.  In all, 13 clerks were arrested or given misdemeanor citations for selling beer to persons under the legal drinking age of 21.  A clerk at the “M and A Quick Stop” at 579 Poplar was physically arrested and charged with Selling Beer to a Minor, Theft of Property and Unlawful Possession of a Weapon.  The clerk possessed a pistol that had been stolen from a vehicle in Memphis back in April of 2006.

A 17 year-old clerk at the “A and M Market” at 794 Poplar was also physically arrested and taken to Juvenile Court on the charges of Selling Beer to a Minor and A Minor Selling Beer.  The store owner at the “A and M Market” was also issued a misdemeanor citation for allowing the teenager to sell beer. 

The 11 other clerks that were issued misdemeanor citations for Selling Beer to A Minor will have to report to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Jail Annex to be booked and fingerprinted at the Records and Identification Division.

Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies and other officers from the Memphis Police Department and Germantown Police Department comprise the Metro D.U.I. Squad.

So far this year, the squad has conducted 21 undercover beer stings and 275 clerks have been issued citations or physically arrested for selling alcohol to underage persons.

Last evening’s sting was part of an on-going effort funded by the Governor’s Highway Safety Office to stop the sale of alcohol to minors.