The Blue Hills Bank Pavilion finds out Thursday if it will suffer any consequences because a pair of new Marshfield High School graduates spotted nearly full cups of beer on a table at a concert and sucked those puppies right down during the Sublime with Rome show on July 12.
Unfortunately for them, BPD Det. Daniel MacDonald and Sgt. Det. Robert Mulvey were doing a routine inspection just then and spotted them as they guzzled the beer at a high-top table near the back of the venue - and then went over to talk to them because they seemed too young to be drinking legally.
"They [gulped them down] in quick fashion," Mulvey said.
Both acknowledged they were 18 when the detectives approached.
Mulvey acknowledged he did not see the two being sold the beers or handed the beers by anybody else. As soon as he notified Blue Hills managers about the pair, they were kicked out.
Blue Hills attorney Dennis Quilty and venue managers said what probably happened was that the two were scouting out tables looking for discarded beers. They said the beer stands had closed 20 minutes earlier and that staff were already in the process of clearing tables.
Mulvey agreed that might be what happened, but said he found it unusual that the teens' cups were nearly full; that he wouldn't think that at the prices Blue Hills charges people would just leave drinks on tables like that.
But a Blue Hills manager said, actually, that happens all the time - even with drinks at $13 or $14 a pop - as concert goers rush back to their seats after an intermission. In fact, he said, post-concert cleanup is usually slowed by the need to pour out so many cups filled with drinks left behind by concert goers.
Mulvey said the two teens face criminal charges of being minors in possession of alcohol. He added that in addition to citing them, he gave them a quick lecture: "You shouldn't be going around and picking up drink in this day and age - you don't know what's in them."
The board decides Thursday what action, if any, to take.