Ines Salla came to the U.S. this summer from Bulgaria to work on a J-1 visa, both as a hotel clerk and a waitress. After a month on the job, when a young couple sat down in her restaurant section to order drinks, she carded them to make sure they were legal.
But the pair of diners at Trattoria Lombardi’s weren’t 21, and they weren’t ordinary restaurant-goers. They were planted by the police, as part of a routine compliance check to catch liquor licensees in the act of selling to minors.
“I failed to notice that their IDs were vertical,” Salla wrote in an apology to authorities, explaining she was overwhelmed and tired on the day. “After taking their order, I was feeling unwell and went to the bathroom. When I returned, the report was already being filed by a man and the police were present.”
Lombardi’s was among a dozen establishments in Ocean City cited by Worcester County authorities for liquor license violations where police caught them selling to minors. The county’s oversight body, the Board of License Commissioners (BLC) ended up issuing $500 fines for each violation at its Sept. 16 meeting.
Such citations go hand-in-glove with the efforts of the Ocean City Police Department, who routinely employ underage cadets or proxies to attempt purchasing alcohol.
Officers send in the youths with legitimate identification that makes it clear that they’re not 21. These are vertical ID cards and come stamped with a notice of “under 21 until (date);” the state Department of Motor Vehicles only issues horizontal cards for those 21 or older.
Vertical IDs, which are not exclusive to Maryland, are problematic for liquor licensees.