Undercover minors working for the Evanston Police Department were able to purchase cigarettes at about one in four businesses during a weekend sting operation, Cmdr. Michael Perry said.
Police cited 12 out of 53 targeted stores on Friday for selling tobacco to minors, a violation rate of about 23 percent.
The remaining 41 establishments were found to be in compliance with the city municipal code, which forbids selling cigarettes to minors, Perry said.
He said the number of citations during was unusually high.
“We usually get two or three,” Perry said.
The 12 stores cited and fined $75 each were: The Keg of Evanston, 810 Grove St.; One Corner Store, 1901 Church St.; Tommy Nevin’s Pub and Restaurant, 1450 Sherman Ave.; 7-Eleven Food Store, 847 Dodge Ave.; Clark Oil and Refining, 2401 Dempster St.; Osco Drug, 1630 Sherman Ave.; Omni Orrington Hotel gift shop, 1710 Orrington Ave.,; 1800 Club, 1800 Sherman Ave.; D & D Finer Foods, 825 Noyes St.; Dollar Day Plus, 323 Howard St.; Keefers Pharmacy, 2916 Central St.; and Yasmeen Food Mart, 607 Howard St.
“We haven’t had a problem for about two years now,” said Tom Douvikas, manager of D & D Finer Foods. “I don’t know what happened Friday. According to (the employee), someone came in and bought cigarettes, and about 10 to 15 minutes later, the policeman came in and gave her a ticket.”
The manager of Dollar Day Plus, Han Lee, said his employee thought the youth looked “older than the legal age.”
“My employee thought the kid looked over 18,” he said. “We’ve never sold cigarettes to minors before.”
Lee said businesses sometimes have to make judgments about a customer’s age.
“We cannot always ask for IDs,” he said.
The operation was conducted by five teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16, who signed parental permission forms, and five certified EPD youth officers.
Perry said EPD randomly checks every city cigarette vendor a couple of times a year.
But not all of the possible Evanston stores were checked on Friday, because a handful of them had gone out of business or were closed that day, Perry said.
The operation was funded by a $9,000 grant from the Illinois Liquor Control Commission as part of the organization’s “Kids Can’t Buy ‘Em Here” campaign.
EPD conducted its last cigarette compliance check this summer, and far fewer stores were cited then, Perry said.
Jan Bryan, manager of Tommy Nevin’s Pub and Restaurant said that to his knowledge, Nevin’s has never had a problem of selling cigarettes to minors before.
“We gotta be a little more careful,” Bryan said.
Vendors can either pay the fine or contest the ticket before the city’s administrative adjudication board, which will review each case, Perry said.
