Elkhorn bar owner stepping up safety after woman reports being drugged
An Elkhorn bar said it's stepping up efforts to keep patrons safe.
The owner of Barrel and Vine said he recently sat down with a woman who said she was drugged at the bar.
"This is very serious, we don't take it lightly," said Aaron McKeever.
Now he said there's new changes to make sure it doesn't happen again.
Aaron McKeever opened Barrel and Vine off 204th and Pacific streets one month ago.
Last weekend, he said he was alerted that someone had their drink tampered with and became ill.
Then, he said it happened again.
“I know this weekend there was definitely more than the week before so that’s very concerning and we're getting to the bottom of it. It’s happened back to back weekends,” McKeever said.
A post shared on social media details a woman's experience which sent her to the emergency room. She claims others told her of similar incidents. She could not be reached for comment Tuesday by social media or phone numbers listed for her.
McKeever said he sat down with her to learn what happened and how.
“I’m going to do everything necessary to make it right,” he said.
McKeever said he launched an investigation with his employees.
He believes a patron tampered with the drinks. He said they were made on the rooftop patio bar, not in a batch and involved a different liquor each time.
"If we knew that 50 drinks were coming from a batch, we could point the finger it's happening here. In this case, it's a few Moscow Mules, a vodka red bull and a vodka soda,” McKeever said.
McKeever said effective immediately on weekends, two off-duty officers will patrol the bar. He said he's making other changes too.
"We're putting HD cameras in, basically you can zoom in on a fingernail and we're bringing in all plasticware with lids,” he said.
McKeever said purchased three dozen cameras from a vendor but hasn’t received them because of a COVID-19 backlog. He said they’re not due to arrive until October, and rather than wait, he purchased some off amazon to install right away.
McKeever said he will prosecute whoever is responsible.
“If we find out who is tampering with these drinks we will take it to the highest level. It’s very unfortunate but we're going to react to it and we're doing the best we can. First and foremost we want to be a good neighbor, and we want people to know that this is a safe place,” McKeever said.
Omaha police and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office could not locate any police reports filed about these incidents.