Like a kid in a candy store, police say, the owner of Minnesota's Largest Candy Store, was following his own rules -- and breaking the law -- when he started selling liquor-filled candy without a liquor license.
Robert Wagner, 66, of Belle Plaine, Minnesota, was charged with one gross misdemeanor count of selling liquor without a license or permit. His first court appearance is set for December.
Here's what happened, zccording to MPR News:
Over the summer, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division received an anonymous tip that the store was selling alcohol-filled candies, “and sold some to a minor child without checking the minor’s ID.”
Agents conducted an undercover operation and found the report was true. Some of the alcohol-infused candy even said on their packaging it was unlawful to sell to people who are underage, police noted.
But no proof of identification was required when agents purchased:
- chocolate-covered brandy cherries with a 7.3 percent concentration of brandy
- chocolate with a whiskey syrup center that was 3.58 percent alcohol by volume
"A few hours later, agents executed a search warrant at the store and met with Wagner. He allegedly told the agents that the candy store did not have a license, that he was aware of the liquor-filled candy in stock, and that he believed the store could sell them."
Wagner told a local TV news crew his goal wasn't to secretly sell liquor, it was to have every conceivable kind of candy inside his distinctive bright yellow storefront -- a tourist destination for many who prowl aisles full of unique candy.
“(We want) to have every conceivable candy, even if it doesn’t represent much in sales,” he told local affiliate FOX 9insisting that stocking the spiked treats was never meant as a way to illegally sell alcohol.
“We have suckers that have scorpions in them. We don’t sell a lot of them, but we got it,” Wagner told Fox 9. “The candies that have the spirits inside of them. We want those as well.”
He told reporters he's stocked the liquor-filled candy for so long he doesn't remember when they began.
And, he added, the customer who filed the complaint could've just pointed it out to him instead of calling police. "We’d have a conversation," Wagner said. "And if they convinced me, well then, I’d say, ‘I’ll take it off the shelf, no big deal.’”
