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A Bartender at the Buccaneers’ Stadium Got Caught Selling Colored Water As Alcohol

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One tequila with a splash of intrigue, please.

The bartender at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Raymond James Stadium was reportedly caught serving flavored water as alcohol, local NBC affiliate WFLA reports.

A conversation recorded by a man named Troy Sykes purportedly exposed the offending bartenders with pouring water from a decorative bottle of booze after Sykes ordered tequila.

“That whole thing is full of water,” Sykes is heard saying on the recording. “Can I see that bottle? Do you service that to people?” he asked, and the bar served it to him. The phone recording also captures the manager explaining that “every liquor” that is sold at the bar is put on display in the back.

“All full of water?” Troy asked.

“Um hmm,” she responds in the recording.

An alcohol industry attorney told WFLA that it is illegal to serve water from an alcoholic beverage bottle that has a label on it.

The stadium concessions vendor, Aramark, said that “what occurred was an honest mistake,” and that Sykes was immediately refunded.

[WFLA]

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