It's Not Miller Time

Here's a short item that I posted here on 1/4/2003…

So I have to stop in at the drugstore and pick up something.  This is last evening.  I'm heading into the store when a kid — maybe 16, maybe older — stops me and says, "Excuse me, sir.  If I give you the money, would you buy some Miller's High Life for me?"  Reminds me of the scene in American Graffiti where the kid with the glasses is outside the liquor shop, trying to score some Sneaky Pete for his date to chug.  I tell the kid outside my friendly neighborhood pharmacy, "Sorry."  What I don't tell him is that I've never even bought beer for myself. I'm certainly not about to buy any for a minor.

I find the item I want and take it to the checker.  Ahead of me in line, a guy is buying a six-pack of Miller High Life.  He's around 40 and wearing a dark blue pea coat.  I think to myself, "Ah, I see the kid outside is going to get his beer."

I pay for my item, walk outside and find that two plainclothes police officers are arresting the guy in the pea coat.  The kid who asked me to buy him beer is looking on, an obvious confederate of the policemen.  Entrapment?  Or strict enforcement of liquor laws?  I don't know which, but it would be kind of comforting to think the police didn't have anything better to do than this.