EARLE, AR (abc24.com) - There is one less place to party in Earle, Ark. after a home belonging to an elderly man was raided and the man arrested.
According to Crittenden County Sheriff's narcotics investigators, the home was also the site of an illegal bar. The homeowner, Louis Baldwin, 71, was arrested and cited for serving booze without a license.
"It is against the law and it is a nuisance," said Mike Callender, Chief Deputy with the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department.
Investigators seized hundreds of cans of beer and alcohol from the home.
According to Callender, this is the fourth illegal bar raid in Earle in the last year.
In all, Callender estimates the sheriff's office has seized hundreds and hundreds of cans of beer and liquor. In some raids, they've got a lot more.
"One of them, they found like 80 little nickel bags or dime bags of marijuana," he said.
Callender says these home-based bars are hard to detect and even harder to shut down.
"These guys, you know about them, but it is kind of hard to catch them," he said.
In Baldwin's neighborhood, some residents were shocked to hear about the raid.
"It is bad for the community and trying to sell beer and stuff out their house is… it is not good," said Pam Jones, who lives close by.
After the raid, Louis Baldwin was left with quite a bar tab. Callender says he was fined $650.
