Investigation Shows Bars Serve Underage Drinkers

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Hidden camera shows minor served in three of four bars
Posted: 10:11 PM Feb 25, 2008
Last Updated: 12:01 AM Feb 26, 2008
Email Address: sixonline@wowt.com

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We've seen tragedies unfold before us too many times. Young lives lost due to drinking. Compliance checks of bars have found 10% will serve to an underage customer. Channel 6 News put that to the test with a hidden camera investigation.

The results may surprise you. The plan was simple. We needed a minor. "I''m Mandy and I'm 19 years old. Our goal is for everyone over 21 to have an ID. My plan is not to have an ID and try to get in. If I do get in, I'll order a drink and not touch it."

With our hidden camera, we targeted bars that minors told us they frequent. The first, an old Omaha favorite, Dougers at 44th and Cuming.

A few words from the bartender quickly put Mandy at ease. “Beer? Whiskey? Tequila?” The bartender never asked for an ID.

We think we're busted when we sit down at Neighbers bar at 46th and Leavenworth. "Can I see IDs?" asked the bartender.

Channel 6 News' Justin Joseph produced his ID as did our undercover photographer. We deliberately had our minor come up empty. "I don't have mine," said Mandy.

But like a good neighbor, the bartender says, "Yeah, you look like you're old enough.”

Not all of the bars served us. Brother's bar on Farnam asked for our minor's ID and told us no way when we asked if she could just hang out in the bar and not drink.

We decided to try a different approach at Senior Matias restaurant just north of 90th and Center. This time Justin ordered at the bar and left the minor at a nearby table. They served up margaritas for three, including our minor.

We gave the bars the opportunity to respond and although they served up liquor to a minor, no one would serve up answers.

The final result? "Even though I'm 19 I got served liquor at three out of four bars," said Mandy. A lot more than 10%, showing mostly that minors are resourceful, but apparently so are some bars around town.

According to the Nebraska Liquor Commission, Neighbers has had 13 compliance checks since 1990 and failed twice.

Dougers, only nine compliance checks and it only passed one-third of those.

Senor Matias passed two of seven checks, but the last time law enforcement visited there was in 1995.

Project Extra Mile

Nebraska Liquor Control Commission

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Comments are posted from viewers like you and do not always reflect the views of this station.

Posted by: amanda on Apr 4, 2009 at 02:54 PM
MINORS THAT GET CAUGHT DOING THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE TO TAKE AN ALCOHOL SAFTEY COURSE. DO YOU KNOW HOW LAME THOSE COURSES ARE? HAVE YOU EVER TAKEN ONE. I HAVE... THEY TELL YOU EVERYTHING YOU ALREADY KNOW AND THEY DON'T AFFECT THE MINORS THAT TAKE THEM. DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE, DON'T DRINK TOO MUCH B/C YOU COULD DIE OF ALCOHOL POISONING, DON'TGET IN THE CAR WITH A DRUNK DRIVER. THERE YA GO...ALCOHOL CLASS OVER.

Posted by: RM on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:56 PM
If these bars are repeat offenders there liscense should be pulled or a LARGE fine to the owner and employee who served.

Posted by: Keith on Feb 27, 2008 at 10:53 AM
If this is a story about teens dying due to drinking, I want to see a comparison with other age groups. If we think we can stop death from alcohol, we'd ban drinking for ALL ages. But we know from history that doesn't work. So are teens really dying at a greater rate from drinking than everyone else?

Posted by: Ashley on Feb 27, 2008 at 09:46 AM
Ha, these were all the bars I went to before I turned 21. Those, and the Beartrap which got shut down. It's really a joke story though, theres a lot of bars that don't card. And most of the time people you know/go to school with are serving or the doorman. Theres always a way into every bar, you just gotta find its weakness and exploit.

Posted by: Jeff on Feb 26, 2008 at 07:01 PM
What a joke! You totaly manipulated the circumstances of this "Hidden Camera Investigation." You send in one underage girl with a couple of older guys, to a few no-name bars, on a Sunday or Monady night? Maybe for your next test you can send in a 20 year old boy and his grandparents, to an Applebees, for a drinking binge! Try a group of 4 or 5 underage kids, on a weekend night, to some bars where people actually go to! Brilliant story. Your really in touch with Omaha's underage drinking problem. Keep up the good work.

Posted by: Anonymous on Feb 26, 2008 at 06:30 PM
is wowt getting lazy? im sure this happens everday

Posted by: L on Feb 26, 2008 at 04:10 PM
Liz says that they are more responsible in Europe with the lower drinking age. Too bad she was not a teen in Europe. I was, and some of the youth would get just as hammered as American teens. It really has to do with how you are raised and how booze is treated in your home. I knew plenty of teens who did not get hammered, inboth Europe and the USA, and it all came down to how they were taught at home. Do check IDs, if you don't then you are lazy, or just don't care.

Posted by: m on Feb 26, 2008 at 03:38 PM
How is this news, this was going on when I was a teenager some 40 years ago. Hey, lets make drinking against the law, it's a drug, same as any other drug, mood altering chemical. Let's go back in time and make it illegal..

Posted by: TLJ on Feb 26, 2008 at 12:51 PM
www.maddnebraska.org

Posted by: TLJ on Feb 26, 2008 at 12:38 PM
There is a MADD forum in Ralston next week: Tuesday, March 4th from 6:00 - 8:00 pm at the Ralston Baright Library. Parents need to make there voices heard against underaged drinking and DUI (at any age). If you are able to attend this meeting it is one way to get your voice heard - get out there and get involved.

Posted by: t on Feb 26, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Take a look at the clubs that have "all ages" night. They are supposed to keep the minors separated from the adults, but a rope down the aisle in the entrance, doesn't keep the minors from walking around it to the other side when they come back from the dance floor or restroom. Then they send someone up to the bar, or take drinks into the restrooms (which are common to both) to give to minors. It's too easy for minors to get alcohol, and penalties that get peoples' attention is what it is going to take. With graduation parties coming up, I hope the parents think twice before allowing alcohol served, or even brought into the party.

Posted by: Dennis on Feb 26, 2008 at 11:45 AM
I feel the law should work both ways. If a person is a minor they if get caught trying to buy liquor or beer be fined and take a class about the dangers of alcohol.

Posted by: kay on Feb 26, 2008 at 11:37 AM
Dan you are right breaking the law to prove a point is still breaking the law. I just have one question does any one know and can tell us when does a bar lose its license or gets put on probation for serving a minor alcohol? Is it after the 3rd time the fourth? Maybe if there was a clear cut number Bars would be more careful.

Posted by: Kendahl on Feb 26, 2008 at 11:36 AM
A bartender who doesn't bother to check a young customer's age is a fool and should find another line of work. I was carded regularly in bars up to age 35. I used to challenge the bartenders to guess my age before I let them see my ID.

Posted by: Lynn on Feb 26, 2008 at 10:26 AM
Dan G., nice excuse for the Creighton area bars. Give me a break; it's the law, show ID or you're out. What idiot bartender actually believes the "oops, I forgot it," line? NONE OF THEM!!! If they serve it up under those circumstances, it's because they DON'T CARE about the potential consequences, and I don't feel sorry for them if they get busted.

Posted by: Liz on Feb 26, 2008 at 09:02 AM
If you're old enough to vote and to be drafted to kill in war, you should be old enough to drink. I favor lowering the drinking age to 18 on moral grounds. As for teens not being responsible with alcohol, that is a social issue--Europeans are far more accustomed to dealing with alcohol in responsible manners when it is viewed as part of an epicurean experience.

Posted by: Mike on Feb 26, 2008 at 08:35 AM
Your next story should be how many minors have fake IDs.

Posted by: Interesting Enforcement on Feb 26, 2008 at 08:32 AM
Interesting how enforcement works so differently at different establishments. When my husband was 28 and I was 27 we stopped into a Bakers to pick up some groceries and he picked up some beer. They refused to sell to us, even though he was paying and had his ID proving his age, because I didn't have my ID on me. We're 30 and 29 now and have both been carded at SuperTarget recently. Even though one of us is paying, they say their policy is to card all in the party. But when I had my 2 year old nephew with me, they sure didn't card him, or my 55 year old mother when she was with me. Strange.

Posted by: pete on Feb 26, 2008 at 07:46 AM
As a prior bar owner back in chicago area..I can easily see how someone can get thru the cracks. But if someone didn't card them and served them anyway.. That was their job..no questions asked. I didn't want to be responsible for the carnage they would do if driving drunk. I'd say either heavly fine the bars or fire the people who didn't do thier job.

Posted by: Omaha on Feb 26, 2008 at 03:53 AM
Dan G. You missed the whole point of the story. If you were watching closely, the story was also about underage drinking and the results of bartenders who serve alcohol to minors. Every year, someone dies because of drunk driving, whether they are victims or the people drinking and driving. Bars who allow minors access to alcohol and who serve alcohol to minors should have their liquor licenses revoked, period. Your comment is typical of a college-age student who doesn't care about the effects of underage drinking, until it affects you personally where you lose a friend or family member to drinking and driving or underage drinking. That's the problem with your mentality. It's all fun and games until someone is hurt. It shouldn't be that way! People lose their lives every year from drinking and driving drunk, and underage drinking.

Posted by: Dan G on Feb 26, 2008 at 01:11 AM
Sending a minor into a bar to buy alcohol. That is classy. I understand if the police do it but not for an undercover news story. The anchors acted surprised. Let's send a 19 year old college freshman into Millard North High School and try selling a bag of weed. Let's see how shocking that would be.Let's go try and get a 16 year old into a rated R movie. Younger than 21 year olds drink. This is not a schocking story because it has been happening for years and years. I could see how a bartender in the Creighton area would be trustworthy of a college age person to walk into the bar and have a drink thinking they were 21. Try to do the same story during the college world series beer tents and around the Blat. Oh, nevermind. That would not be of interest to the who's of who of Omaha.

Posted by: Anonymous on Feb 25, 2008 at 10:20 PM
That doesn't surprise me at all, I'm 24(and look younger) and I rarely get carded at bars.