Teh One Who Knocks
11-04-2011, 10:53 AM
Investigative Reporter Heidi Hemmat FOX31 Denver
http://i.imgur.com/EDzpH.jpg
DENVER – The legal drinking age in Colorado is 21, but a FOX31 Denver hidden camera investigation discovered it’s amazingly easy for people under 21 to get into Denver bars and clubs.
To test the challenges an underaged teen would face while trying to gain access to those bars and clubs, FOX31 enlisted the help of a teenager we’re calling Jane. We sent her out on the town on a Saturday night in lower downtown Denver.
The result? Jane was able to get into one bar after another using a Colorado driver’s license that did not belong to her.
“I got in,” our teen said. “I was, like, wow!”
The 5’ 11” blonde admits that she looks nothing like the 5’ 6” red head whose picture is on the license. “I don’t look like her at all. I have a long face,” she said.
Yet the underage teen was allowed inside ten different Lodo bars, including the 24K Lounge. That’s the same nightclub where 19-year-old Kenia Monge spent the last hours of her life, reportedly drinking with underage friends before she was murdered by Travis Forbes.
FOX31 Denver obtained a copy of the fake Baja, Mexico ID Kenia used to get into the club, and we could not find a date of birth.
The manager of the nearby Lavish Lounge told FOX31 that his door staff couldn’t find the birth date on Kenia’s ID, either, which is why the Lavish Lounge door staff turned Kenia away the night she was killed. Monge then walked down Market Street to 24K Lounge where she did get inside.
Kenia’s 19-year-old friend, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, claims 24K Lounge didn’t check her ID.
“The 24K guys were like come in, come into our club,” she said. “We just walked in…they didn’t ID us. It was packed.”
We requested an interview with the owner of 24K Lounge and three other Lodo bars, Francois Safieddine, but we were referred to his general manager, Johnny Coast.
Coast refused our request for an interview, so we caught up with him on his way into work and asked him, “Do you feel you’re doing enough to keep under-aged people out of your bars?” Coast slammed the door in our faces.
But 24K Lounge isn’t the only bar that failed our test.
Using a fake ID, our underage teen got inside Spill, Oak Tavern, Pour House Pub, Gas Lamp, Chloe, Lavish Lounge, Mynt, 24K Lounge, The Rio Grande and Blake Street Vault.
FOX 31 Denver reached out to the owners and managers of all ten bars, but only one was willing to do an interview.
Kyle Burns, with Blake Street Vault told us, “It’s a very serious thing, and we want to make sure we take care of it.”
Burns said his staff makes every effort to catch fake I.D.’s and they regret one slipped by. “We just have to promote a firm line of defense at the front door and do a better job,” Burns said, adding the doorman on duty the night of our test has been suspended.
Tom Downey, Director of Denver’s department of Excise and Licenses, said bars that allow under-aged people into their establishments could face serious consequences, including losing their liquor license.
“First, we can issue a fine,” Downey said. “We can suspend their license; shut them down for a period of time, or in extreme cases, revoke their license completely.”
Downey said the city would launch its own investigation immediately.
He thanked FOX31 Denver “for making this effort. It helps us do our job better and more effectively.”
A spokesperson for the bars on Market Street tells us they have already started implementing changes by purchasing ID readers which scan IDs and identify which are fake and which are real. He said the ID readers also notify the other bars with ID readers when someone tries to use a fake ID to get into a club.
http://i.imgur.com/EDzpH.jpg
DENVER – The legal drinking age in Colorado is 21, but a FOX31 Denver hidden camera investigation discovered it’s amazingly easy for people under 21 to get into Denver bars and clubs.
To test the challenges an underaged teen would face while trying to gain access to those bars and clubs, FOX31 enlisted the help of a teenager we’re calling Jane. We sent her out on the town on a Saturday night in lower downtown Denver.
The result? Jane was able to get into one bar after another using a Colorado driver’s license that did not belong to her.
“I got in,” our teen said. “I was, like, wow!”
The 5’ 11” blonde admits that she looks nothing like the 5’ 6” red head whose picture is on the license. “I don’t look like her at all. I have a long face,” she said.
Yet the underage teen was allowed inside ten different Lodo bars, including the 24K Lounge. That’s the same nightclub where 19-year-old Kenia Monge spent the last hours of her life, reportedly drinking with underage friends before she was murdered by Travis Forbes.
FOX31 Denver obtained a copy of the fake Baja, Mexico ID Kenia used to get into the club, and we could not find a date of birth.
The manager of the nearby Lavish Lounge told FOX31 that his door staff couldn’t find the birth date on Kenia’s ID, either, which is why the Lavish Lounge door staff turned Kenia away the night she was killed. Monge then walked down Market Street to 24K Lounge where she did get inside.
Kenia’s 19-year-old friend, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, claims 24K Lounge didn’t check her ID.
“The 24K guys were like come in, come into our club,” she said. “We just walked in…they didn’t ID us. It was packed.”
We requested an interview with the owner of 24K Lounge and three other Lodo bars, Francois Safieddine, but we were referred to his general manager, Johnny Coast.
Coast refused our request for an interview, so we caught up with him on his way into work and asked him, “Do you feel you’re doing enough to keep under-aged people out of your bars?” Coast slammed the door in our faces.
But 24K Lounge isn’t the only bar that failed our test.
Using a fake ID, our underage teen got inside Spill, Oak Tavern, Pour House Pub, Gas Lamp, Chloe, Lavish Lounge, Mynt, 24K Lounge, The Rio Grande and Blake Street Vault.
FOX 31 Denver reached out to the owners and managers of all ten bars, but only one was willing to do an interview.
Kyle Burns, with Blake Street Vault told us, “It’s a very serious thing, and we want to make sure we take care of it.”
Burns said his staff makes every effort to catch fake I.D.’s and they regret one slipped by. “We just have to promote a firm line of defense at the front door and do a better job,” Burns said, adding the doorman on duty the night of our test has been suspended.
Tom Downey, Director of Denver’s department of Excise and Licenses, said bars that allow under-aged people into their establishments could face serious consequences, including losing their liquor license.
“First, we can issue a fine,” Downey said. “We can suspend their license; shut them down for a period of time, or in extreme cases, revoke their license completely.”
Downey said the city would launch its own investigation immediately.
He thanked FOX31 Denver “for making this effort. It helps us do our job better and more effectively.”
A spokesperson for the bars on Market Street tells us they have already started implementing changes by purchasing ID readers which scan IDs and identify which are fake and which are real. He said the ID readers also notify the other bars with ID readers when someone tries to use a fake ID to get into a club.