It's A Felony To For Minors To Carry Alcohol?

FayeW

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Apr 16, 2003
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My friend's teenagers are visiting their grandparents in Florida. They were shopping with grandmother and were carrying the alcohol bottles for her in the store. Not attempting to purchase, just holding the bottles. They were thrown out of the store and told it was a Felony! How can carrying something in a store prior to purchase be a crime?
 
I'm no law expert, so I can't tell you if it's a felony, but it sounds pretty ridiculous.

Think about it - they probably have minors stocking the shelves. In which case, they'd have to carry the alcohol. And that would be a felony. As long as it isn't open, and they aren't consuming, I personally don't think it's a problem, and I think it's ridiculous the store owner would throw them out. And in SC, you can serve at 18 apparently because my sister who is a minor is the cart girl on a golf course and serves the players.

But maybe Florida is different, though.
 
False. Perhaps it was poor judgement not to simply get a cart, but carrying alcohol under your grandmother's supervision is not a felony.

A couple of my daughter's friends have received tickets for underage drinking in college (and a couple have had to go to court), but those have all been misdemeanors. Yet, certainly, those offenses are more severe than what you're describing.

Before we fault the store entirely, though, consider this: They don't know that the teens are going to stay with grandma the whole time -- and, for all we know, the teens were on one side of the store while grandma was on the other side. The store likely didn't want the kids to walk over to look at the magazines (holding a 12-pack) while grandma peruses the produce section. They don't want to give the impression to other cusotmers that they are going to allow the teens to buy alcohol. Doesn't excuse stretching the truth and kicking them out, but I can see why they'd want to nip this potential public relations issue in the bud.
 
I'd have to look up the laws in Florida to see what's actually prohibited. But it sounds to me like the store was being very vigilant. They'd rather err on the side of caution. What they saw was a group of teens holding bottles and it made them nervous. The staff at the store don't know that the teens were helping their grandmother. For all they know, the woman is a stranger helping the teens buy liquor -- which puts the store's license at risk.

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The law in Florida, as I understand it:

Minors may not consume alcohol under any circumstances.

Individuals 18 and over may be employed in a liquor store but may not handle liquor.

Individuals over the age of 18 may tend bar and serve drinks.

So helping your grandmother carry bottles is not illegal. But you can see why it made the store personnel uncomfortable.

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States all have different laws (I know this because my DD goes to college out of state.) Where I live - a Minor is under the age of 18. When you are 18, you are able to sell alcohol at grocery stores, sporting events, concerts etc, eventhough you are not able to legally drink.

Also - some states have different degrees of penalties if you are a minor (i.e. under 18) or just underage (i.e. between 18 and not yet 21).

When we have the opportunity to "lecture" our DD (there is a huge music festival in our area every summer) to not even hold anyone's alcoholic beverage - for any reason. Period. You'll get busted - and then it sucks to be you.

The store owners have no clue what is going on between the grandparents and the grandkids, and sorry - while it may or may not be a felony for the people holding the alcohol in the store, "IF" the cashier sells the alcohol to underage kids, and something happens where there is a death, the store and the cashier could be found liable.

I'm on the side of the store.
 
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I don't know if it is a felony, but a quick google search just turned up that in Florida it is illegal for a minor to be in possession af alcohol. So carrying beer for grandma would be illegal. The store could get into trouble for allowing this to happen; however, I do think the store could have handled it better by simply letting grandma know of the law and asking her to get a shopping cart to hold the beer.
 
I'm trying to remember the details but about a year ago my dh had brought my son into the liquor store with him. I believe he handed my son one of the bags and the worker told my dh that he was not allowed to carry it - either in the store or out of the store I forget. We're in Maryland and I don't know what the law is but we hadn't ever heard of that before.
 
Not a felony.
I live in FL and have had to have someone over 18 come and scan and package my wine.
 
Florida has some different laws. I have seen posted that you can't pickup, deliver, or be in possession of someone else's prescription medicine, so it is entirely possible that a minor can't even carry alcohol in a store.
 
If an officer would actually arrest a kid for this, at most it's a second degree misdemeanor. But it is illegal for a minor to even be in possession in Florida. You can't even give your own child a glass of wine in your own home if they are under 21.
 
So if carrying it around a store is "possession" then so is an underage cashier picking it up and bagging it. For that second, they are also in possession. ;)

I think its ridiculous that the store kicked them out, like a pp mentioned, they could have explained to Grandma and she could have gotten a cart.
 
Florida has some ridiculous laws.
 
I'm no law expert, so I can't tell you if it's a felony, but it sounds pretty ridiculous.

Think about it - they probably have minors stocking the shelves. In which case, they'd have to carry the alcohol. And that would be a felony. As long as it isn't open, and they aren't consuming, I personally don't think it's a problem, and I think it's ridiculous the store owner would throw them out. And in SC, you can serve at 18 apparently because my sister who is a minor is the cart girl on a golf course and serves the players.

But maybe Florida is different, though.

I agree! I KNOW my 19 year can ring alcohol up at her work! As soon as she turned 18, she could ring it up but when she was 17...she was allowed to hold the bottle (she would have to -- pick it up, call for someone 18+ to ring it up!). I recently found out that you can serve if you are 18 here too...you just can't POUR unless you are 21. So, you could be a waitress at 18 to deliver the alochol but you can't be the one actually pouring it into the glass.

I think every state has a law about it but seems weird to me...you would think they would just say "they can't be holding the alcohol, it's a felony in this state" 99% of the people would go "oh, oops" and then comply with the law -- especially with Florida as I'm sure they have many tourists who would have no clue that was the law there. There are laws in my own state, that I had no clue about (apparently 18 to buy white-out at one point -- who knew!!! That was years ago though).
 
Florida has some different laws. I have seen posted that you can't pickup, deliver, or be in possession of someone else's prescription medicine, so it is entirely possible that a minor can't even carry alcohol in a store.

How do parent's pick up their children's prescriptions then? Hmm...so my baby has an ear infection but I can't pick up their antibotics because it isn't my prescription. Interesting...I'm hoping there is a loophole about prescriptions for minors but who knows.

Definitely weird laws but every state has them.
 
FayeW said:
My friend's teenagers are visiting their grandparents in Florida. They were shopping with grandmother and were carrying the alcohol bottles for her in the store. Not attempting to purchase, just holding the bottles. They were thrown out of the store and told it was a Felony! How can carrying something in a store prior to purchase be a crime?

Maybe grandma should cut back
 
I would be very surprised if handling a product in a store constituted possession in a legal sense. If it did, that would mean no 18-20 year olds could work stock, cashier, or bagger in any store that sold alcohol, nor could they wait or bus tables in any restaurant that serves it.

More likely, the store either has a recent citation for selling to minors or heard that there was going to be a crackdown (either by police or "investigative" news media) coming and overreacted to the situation out of a perceived need for hyper-vigilance.
 
Florida has some different laws. I have seen posted that you can't pickup, deliver, or be in possession of someone else's prescription medicine, so it is entirely possible that a minor can't even carry alcohol in a store.

I'd have to see that one from an official source to believe it. It completely defies logic that a state with such a large population of elderly would prohibit prescription delivery services or even something as simple as adult children getting medication for a parent. And how would the mail-order prescription service that so many insurance companies are pushing work with that?
 
I'd have to look up the laws in Florida to see what's actually prohibited. But it sounds to me like the store was being very vigilant. They'd rather err on the side of caution. What they saw was a group of teens holding bottles and it made them nervous. The staff at the store don't know that the teens were helping their grandmother. For all they know, the woman is a stranger helping the teens buy liquor -- which puts the store's license at risk.

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What they saw was two teenage girls (18 & 16) shopping WITH their grandmother.

When we go to Florida we do a grocery run that includes a case of Coors Light and usually some Mike's Hard Lemonade. Probably at one time or another one of my kids has pushed the cart containing those items. By Florida's laws, isn't that possession?
 

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