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      Police disable 'Pepsi' machine that dispensed beer in Northeast

      Photo: Jennifer Donelan/WJLA

      It looked like a soda machine in front of an apartment building in Northeast D.C., but police say it wasn't as advertised.

      The Pepsi machine on Meigs Place in Trinidad dispensed cans of beer for $3. When a neighbor alerted police, they checked and discovered the working beer dispensary.

      If you put in your money, you could buy a Bud Light, Bud Ice or a can of the original Schlitz Malt Liquor.

      Anyone, no matter their age, could buy if they had the knowledge and the money. It's still unknown as to who owned and operated the machine, who stocked it and who collected the money.

      Vanessa Sowells, a local landlord, said she complained to the city for months. Later, after another resident alerted officers to kids who were buying beers, a sergeant tested the machine Tuesday night..

      When a large can of beer popped out, he disabled the machine. It took six Department of Public Works workers to remove it.

      "I knew it was beer because I saw big people going over there and then I saw little people over there, too," Sowells says.