Urbandale Hy-Vee, Casey's Store Cited for Selling Tobacco to Underage Customer

Two Urbandale retailers -- Hy-Vee Food Store and the Casey's General Store at 4901 86th St. -- were cited last week for selling tobacco to an underage customer, according to the Urbandale Police Department.

On Feb. 6, Urbandale Police visited local retailers to perform tobacco compliance checks, said Public Information Officer Randy Peterson. Supervised by law enforcement officers, underage customers attempted to buy tobacco products from 23 retailers.

The police department is proud to report a 90 percent compliance rate with this round of checks, Peterson said.

Currently, 23 businesses are licensed to sell tobacco products within the City of Urbandale. Of those retailers, only two failures were reported, one retailer has closed permanently and one business was not open at the time of the checks.

Those that passed the check were: Hy-Vee Gas, a second Casey’s General Store location, Fareway, Git n Go, Hy-Vee C-Store, Kathy’s Irish Pub, all six Urbandale Kum & Go stores, Pilot Travel Center, two QuikTrip stores, Suzy Q’s, Tobacco Outlet Plus, Urban Liquor, and two Walgreen’s locations.

The Urbandale Police Department would like to commend the above retailers for their diligence when it comes to underage tobacco sales, Peterson said.

An employee at the Urbandale Hy-Vee, 8701 Douglas Ave., and the 86th Street Casey's store was cited for first offense selling tobacco products to someone under the legal age. The penalty if convicted is a $100 fine, plus a surcharge and court cost for a total of $195.