Redding Police, with help and funding from the State Alcoholic Beverage Control Agency, did a series of underage alcohol stings Monday, targeting stores as well as customers. The first part of the operation was minor decoy stings, during which an underage person working with police went into stores attempting to buy alcohol with no ID. Sixteen businesses were visited and clerks at two of them were cited for selling booze to the minor. They were the Vasu Gas and Food on Hartnell Avenue and Downtown Market on Placer Street. The other phase of the operation was the “shoulder tap”, which involves having the underage person approach customers on their way in to stores and ask them to make a purchase, making clear to the target that it’s because of age. Fifteen people were asked and two of them, 43-year-old Jeremiah Miller of Susanville and 50-year-old Brian Fleischauer of Anderson, were cited after agreeing to make the purchase. Police say that when these operations began in the 1980’s the violation rate was as high as 40 to 50%. It’s now as low as 10% or less.