The Summit County Sheriff’s office was called to investigate an 18-year-old selling tobacco and vape products out of a van parked in the Kimball Junction McDonald’s parking lot. Vape products are lawfully sold in Park City but without a business license, the operation was shut down. Carolyn Murray has this:
Sheriff’s Lieutenant, Andrew Wright said it’s illegal to sell smoke and tobacco products to anyone younger than 19. The occupant of the vehicle was cooperative and said he was working for a convenience store in the Salt Lake Valley. He told deputies the store would pay him a commission on what he sold.
“What we discovered is that he was using Facebook and snap chat to coordinate meeting people to sell these items out of his vehicle. And, he would meet them at whatever location to sell his products and he was doing this for the convenience store.”
Lieutenant Wright said there were multiple violations including his age, having no business license and issues depending on who he sells tobacco products to.
“He did have an additional cell phone. He was using a couple different cell phones as part of his business for his sales and we were able to recover all of the items he was using to do all this. And, of course we’re actively working the case. We’ve notified the Attorney Generals office just to let them know, kind of the case itself where it’s a business out of the valley where it’s employing someone to illegally sell these items."
The name of the convenience store was not released due to the active investigation still under way. Wright said a citation was given to the occupant of the van for possession of tobacco by a minor. Wright said they were using social media and don’t often deal with this type of violation. They were able to intercept some communications while interviewing the 18-year-old.
“He admitted that right to our deputies that that’s how he was going about doing that. In fact, when our deputies were talking to him about it, there were messages coming through the social media outfits. And so, as part of our investigation, we will look into that more fully and determine who these people are and how exactly he was going about coordinating the sale of these items.”
That’s Summit County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Andrew Wright.
