Florida Woman Gets Beer At Gas Station. Then The Clerk Hands Her A Paper Bag—And Insists It’s For Her Own Safety: ‘I Didn’t Know’

Most people don’t expect to receive a warning alongside the purchase of an alcoholic beverage. But that’s exactly what happened to one Florida woman when she went to a gas station for a beer.

​In a video that received more than 815,000 views, Leni (@purrcatt0ry) discussed an interaction she had with a gas station attendant. According to her, the attendant gave her a paper bag to put her beer in and told her that she needed it—otherwise, she might get arrested.

A Warning

Leni, who lives in Florida, stopped at a gas station to purchase a beer. She picked out the drink she wanted, walked up to the register, and let the gas station attendant check her ID. She purchased the beverage and began to make her way out the door.

“I turn to walk away. She goes, ‘Oh, wait, I forgot. Mm, here’s a paper bag,’” Leni said. “And I’m like, ‘A paper bag? OK.’ She goes, ‘Cops might still be out there.’ And I was like, ‘Cops? What, is beer illegal now?”’

The attendant responded and told Leni that she could get arrested for public intoxication, even if the beer wasn’t open.

“They can assume you’re gonna [drink and drive] with it, and you can get arrested,” Leni recalled the attendant saying.

Why Does Liquor Go In A Brown Paper Bag?

A paper bag, according to some, prevents police from committing illegal search and seizure. The theory is that police cannot search the bag. Thus, it saves a customer from a sticky situation with law enforcement if they get pulled over on the way home.

But there are ways in which law enforcement can arrest individuals, regardless of what bag they’re using to store alcohol.

Florida’s statute on disorderly intoxication explicitly bans individuals from being intoxicated in public in a way that disturbs or harms others. If a person causes a disturbance, a brown paper bag is unlikely to stop detainment.

Additionally, there is a statute that bans individuals from openly carrying alcoholic beverages in vehicles. If law enforcement suspects that a person operating a vehicle has an open beer by them in Florida, they might get stopped—brown paper bag or not.

Is The Bag A State Requirement?

In the comment section, more than a few viewers assumed that the paper bag was a state requirement.

But similar to other states, Florida doesn’t actually have any explicit law or statute that requires individuals to sell alcohol in paper bags. And while there have been bills and legislation that are attempting to change how businesses approach to-go alcoholic beverages, they aren’t officially part of Florida’s state policy.

Some individual franchises may have policies to always include a bag with every alcohol purchase. One commenter even claimed that cities sometimes require stores to provide bags for customers.

“I’m a former convenience store manager,” they said. “It is crazy, but that bag rule is real. It’s not in every city but many cities have that rule. If it fits in a bag it has to go in a bag. [The] only exceptions are the large 18-30 pack cases that won’t fit. And in some areas if it is a single-serve can or bottle, or a bottle of wine, it must be a paper bag. Go figure.”

In other words, the attendant wasn’t legally obligated by the state to provide Leni a to-go beer bag. It’s possible, however, that the city she lives in or even the franchise the attendant works for has a policy that requires it.

BroBible reached out to Leni via email for comment.