Does An Empty Beer Bottle Count As An Open Container?

You’re driving home after a great weekend getaway at your best friend’s house, and the police put their siren on. That did they want to do a random stop just to pull you over to check your license and mechanical fitness to your car? You get that sinking feeling as you see an empty beer bottle rolling towards the passenger side, and you go, “Oh, how is this going to affect me?” “What do the police do?” “ Is this an open container?” Is this legal? Well, this is a very loaded question, isn’t it, and I’m going to answer that question for you so it’s can be a panicky situation for someone who’s got empties in the car with the police, especially if you’ve been drinking. So, let’s break that down. So the police pull you over and they see that empty and let’s say there’s some residual alcohol in it. Let’s say there’s a little half ounce of alcohol. Well, technically, that’s an open container with alcohol in it. You thought it was an empty. It wasn’t. Then, if a police officer wanted to be difficult, even though he knows it’s basically an empty, they could potentially charge you with that. Now let’s assume it’s completely empty. How is that? It cannot be affected as well? Well, yes, because now the police officer’s suspicion is up that you may have been drinking, for example, and it’s going to get their antenna up and they’re going to do further investigation. They might ask you to do a roadside screening test. Might lean in to smell your breath and what if you’ve been drinking. Now, if that empty wouldn’t have been there, maybe they would have had no suspicion and let you go on your way. But now you’ve created problems for yourself. You’ve created a perception in the police officers mind as well, and now that’s evidence against you. So, if, if you’re for example, was a slight weave on the roadway, a slight odor of alcohol, you’ve got the empty. This constellation of factors can factor against you to potentially convict you at trial of an impaired driving case, so if you’re driving badly or an over 80 case. So do yourself a favor, even though a completely empty beer bottle is not considered an open container under the Liquor License Act, never keep empties in your car, keep, always keep them in the trunk. And you’re transporting them back to back to the beer store, for example, you know, always keep them your trunk and always keep liquor. My advice is to always keep liquor in the trunk, even if it’s everything sealed. That’s legal. You could come back to the store with a bottle of rum you’re going home. I wouldn’t even keep that in the car. You don’t want any questions from the police in case you’re pulled over. But technically, a completely empty beer bottle is not an open container. I mean, there’s just you’ve got a beer bottle, there’s no liquor in it, there’s no alcohol in it, in the beer you know, so you’re good. So, but it does create a perception problem. I’ve seen police officers really overreact to the situation. It could cause them to search your vehicle, maybe unwarrantedly, maybe an unscrupulously, and you don’t want the problems. Just do yourself a favor. Just pretend it’s an open container. Even though it is, it’s not. Leave it in the trunk and you should be fine. But also, I’m very concerned as well, if there’s residual alcohol, a difficult police officer could technically charge you if there’s a half ounce alcohol and a rolling around beer or, you know, glass or something, so just do yourself a favor. That’s my legal advice to you for the day. And thanks for watching our video.