Police can confiscate kegs

By SUSIE XU
Collegian Staff Writer

When police find underage drinkers at parties, they reserve the right to confiscate any kegs as evidence.

Police occasionally conduct searches for underage drinkers at parties, usually as a result of a noise complaint. When individuals not of legal drinking age are found, police have the right to confiscate any kegs at the party as evidence of underage drinking and possibly of furnishing alcohol to minors.

"It depends on how aggressive an officer wants to be," said Cpl. John Gardner of the State College Police Department. However, if an officer decides to confiscate the kegs, "(they) are held as evidence until the case is disposed of."

After the kegs and other forms of evidence, such as cups containing alcohol, from an underage drinking party are presented to the magistrate at a preliminary hearing, the police return the kegs to their respective beer distributors.

Although Jon Hickey, vice president of W.R. Hickey Beer Distributor's Inc., 1321 E. College Ave., said police rarely return kegs to his company, those he does receive get sent back to their particular breweries.

"The barrels are not my property -- they're the property of the brewery," Hickey said. He added draft beer cannot be bought back because it is not pasteurized in kegs and can easily spoil when not kept at cold temperatures.

Students whose kegs are confiscated also lose the state-mandated $10 they spent on a deposit for renting each keg, Gardner said. The deposit is the property of the police department once they return the kegs.

If a tap is returned along with a keg, Hickey said he keeps it until the person who rented it can show proper proof of putting down a deposit, which ranges from $30 to $50, depending on the distributor.

"I'm very reluctant to give someone hard cash if I'm not sure it's theirs," Hickey said. But he added he cannot recall a time when the police returned a tap and keg together, because many people own their own taps.

Gardner said people should not be concerned if everyone at a party is of legal drinking age and the noise is maintained at a low level.

"If it's midnight, and it's a loud party, (police are) going to want to look at that kind of thing and start carding people," he said.

• Partiers should know rules