MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis mother is reaching out to federal authorities after she says her teenage daughter was served alcohol at a local sports bar then vanished for several hours.
She says her daughter was so drunk she wound up passed out in the back of her own car with a much older man driving.
“It could have been so tragic,” the mother, who chooses to remain anonymous, said.
It all started when her 16-year-old daughter left the house Saturday night, supposedly, for an after prom party and sleep over in the Germantown area.
But in the wee hours of the morning, the family noticed something wasn’t right.
“At about 2 a.m. my older daughter texted me and asked me if I knew where my youngest daughter was. She said she was on Lamar Avenue,” the mother said.
The family uses Life 360, a GPS app, to keep tabs on one another.
It was showing the younger sister wasn’t in Germantown but on Lamar Avenue near the 360 Sports Bar and Grill.
“I’m constantly calling her. The whole time I’m trying to call her there’s no answer.”
Once they found the address, the mom says they checked inside the hotel, but didn’t even consider the bar and grill since her daughter is a teenager.
“She can’t get in. She’s 16, and she looks 16. Her friend is 16 too.” The mother says after more texts and calls, they got her daughter on the phone.
She says after finally getting her daughter on the phone she could tell she was drunk by her voice.
Her daughter told her she didn’t know where she was and a random guy was driving her car.
The mom says she sent a text to her daughter’s phone threatening to call the police.
That’s when a man called back and told her they were in the parking lot of a Germantown apartment complex, the same place her daughter was supposed to be spending the night in the first place.
The woman says her daughter told her she’d gone to the 360 Sports Bar and Grill to meet up with other friends who never showed up. She also said they ended up going inside and were able to buy alcohol.
“Just to gain access to a place like that is bad enough, but to get in there and be able to purchase alcohol is just unacceptable,” the mother said.
The family ended up not calling the police Saturday night, but the mother says she still plans to file a report and has already contacted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
She says the ordeal has been a lesson for her family, and she wants to warn others too.
“I’m hoping this will prevent someone else’s underage child from being able to obtain alcohol,” the mother said.
We called and visited 360 Sports Bar and Grill in hopes of speaking with the owner about the allegations, but have yet to get a comment.