Target gets in trouble for way it tried to stave off trouble from underage college students looking to buy beer

A week after it got a three-day liquor suspension for letting young'uns buy beer, the Target at 1345 Boylston St. was back before the Boston Licensing Board, this time after BPD detectives found a security guard out of uniform and packing a very visible gun with an expired Boston firearms ID card - and without first notifying the city he would be on duty as required.

A Target attorney told the Boston Licensing Board the man's presence in the store on March 3 was a mistake. The store had asked a security company to provide a guard in an attempt to stare down and scare off under-21 shoppers from trying to pick up some 30-packs, but specifically asked that he be in uniform and that he not show up with a gun. Instead, he showed up with a gun but without a uniform, attorney Joseph Devlin acknowledged.

Devlin predicted this will be the last time the store will be before the board for underage violations, because a new "super scanner" the store now uses has proven very effective at ferreting out the under-21 set. He said the system caught 35 fake IDs in its first three days of operation. More proof is in the aisles leading up to the registers equipped for liquor sales - kids take one look at the scanners and just drop the booze they'd been planning to buy in those aisles, he said.

In addition to last week's punishment for the way a couple of Wentworth students got through a register line with beer, the store had gotten a one-day suspension after two Northeastern students were nabbed by BPD detectives in the process of buying some Natty Ice and vodka in December.

The board decides Thursday whether the security-guard incident merits any punishment.