State police swarmed three Philly bars last week, confiscating gallons of beer that the owners say they bought legally.
State Rep. John Taylor says this was a “ridiculous use of manpower,” reports the Daily News.
More than a dozen state police officers raided three popular Philadelphia bars, all owned by Leigh Maida and Brendan Hartranft, seizing hundreds of bottle of expensive brews, as well as four kegs, on a “citizen’s complaint” tip that said nobody registered the names of the beers with the state Liquor Control Board.
The beer in question, at Resurrection Ale House on Grays Ferry Avenue, Local 44 in West Philly, and the MemphisTaproom in Port Richmond, was bought legally from licensed Pennsylvania distributors with all of the necessary taxes included, according to Hartranft and Maida.
Police allege that the beer was not registered by the brewers or importers, a state requirement in place since 1987 that includes a $75 fee for those manufacturers.
"I don't know why they would use that many people to track down an issue like this that could have been handled with a routine inspection," state Rep. John Taylor told the Daily News. Tayor's legislative district includes the Memphis Taproom.
The owners of the three bars checked the state beer registry after the raids and found that more than 50 percent of the beer police seized was, in fact, legally registered, reports the Daily News.
Maida said that her attorney is trying to recover at least some of the 60.9 gallons of beer by showing the state police their error.
