If you’re like most college students, and the stretch between Sunday and Thursday seems to get longer every week, why not start the weekend early? Here’s at least one reason to ignore the temptation to hit the bar on a Tuesday night: that bar might just get raided.

At least, that was the surprise in store for many Fairfield students last Tuesday night, who went out in search of a good time at either Russell’s Pub or Key West Bar and Grill. Unlike the Seagrape, which is rumored to be as hard to get into as Fort Knox, underage students seem to have better luck at these two popular weeknight hangouts.

However, that luck seemed to run out for the under-twenty-one crowd at Russell’s and Key West last Tuesday. At around 10 p.m., the disc jockey at Key West announced over the loudspeaker that the police were on their way, giving fair warning that anyone under twenty-one should leave.

Apparently, Key West had been alerted of the possibility of a raid because the police had already made a stop at Russell’s Pub earlier in the night. Key West owner Jon Chlebowski said that he believed someone at the bar received a call from a patron at Russell’s, but until the police arrived, even he was unsure of whether the raid would actually occur. Russell’s Pub could not be reached for comment.

“We all thought it was a scare tactic,” said a Fairfield sophomore, who wished to remain anonymous. The student stayed at the bar with friends despite the fact that many of them had chalked New York State IDs. “No one was really worried.”

At around 11:30, however, the music stopped abruptly as Fairfield Police arrived on the scene.

“At first, we thought they would take our IDs away,” the sophomore continued, “but they only told us that they were expired and we would have to get new ones. I guess they didn’t realize they were chalked.”

Throughout the raid, Key West’s three bouncers remained at the doors, keeping everyone inside until the police were finished. According to Chlebowski, there was not much of a panic. He described the event as “pretty routine,” saying that the police only spoke to a few of the patrons and took down several names.

When asked to comment on whether Key West usually has problems controlling underage drinking, Chlebowski said, “Generally, we’re strict. We have video cameras, we make people sign age statement forms, we have three guys at the door…we always question the obvious stuff, like a blonde girl who shows us a brunette’s ID, but it’s hard to tell sometimes, because fake IDs are being made so well these days.”

Although underage students might choose to stay away from Key West for at least a little while, Chlebowski doesn’t think that this incident will damage either the bar’s business or its reputation.

“If underage kids were coming in and now they aren’t going to, then that’s a good thing,” he said. “I think we have a strong enough clientele that we don’t have to worry about losing the underage kids that sneak in.”