BURNT HILLS — Like any 20-year-old intent on buying alcohol might have been, Christopher DeLuca said he was a little nervous as he walked into a local convenience store recently with his eyes on a six pack of beer.

But DeLuca wasn’t nervous because he knew he was trying to do something illegal. He was participating as a “decoy” in a police sting to bust businesses that sell alcohol to minors.

The Burnt Hills resident got involved in the sting through the Prevention Council, a Saratoga Springs-based not-for-profit group that aims to educate and inform the community about issues surrounding violence as well as alcohol, tobacco and drug use.

DeLuca said he visited about eight stores in two Saratoga County communities earlier this year during the sting, with all but one of the stores refusing to sell him alcohol.

“It was a little nerve-wracking, just the fact that the consequences of whoever would sell it to you were pretty dire, just having that feeling that you’re responsible for getting them into trouble,” he said in a recent interview. “I just tried to keep a cool head and play it off like it wasn’t a big deal.”

Law endorsement officials were nearby and observed DeLuca as he tried to buy the alcohol. At the one store where he was sold alcohol, police moved in and arrested the clerk on a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully dealing with a child.

“It was a little nerve-wracking thinking the person may hold a grudge,” DeLuca said. “At the same time, I couldn’t feel too responsible for it because they failed to do their job properly.”

DeLuca was asked to participate in the sting by Lisa Chamberlain, the director of the youth court at the Prevention Council.

The youth court is made up of 140 high school students that act as attorneys, judges and jury members in cases referred there by local courts. DeLuca had been an officer in the youth court since he was a junior in high school, he said.

All of the cases assigned to the youth court are ones in which the defendant is a youth who has pleaded guilty on minor offenses, such as possession of marijuana or petty larceny, Chamberlain said.

The teenagers in the youth court assign various legally binding punishments to the defendants, such as community service, jail tours, or essays.

All of the defendants who go through the youth court have to serve on a future youth court jury.

“It’s making the kids accountable for their actions,” Chamberlain said. “It makes them understand what they did is wrong and not so much hear it from an adult, but hear it from their own peers.”

Chamberlain said the Prevention Council has always used decoys who were officers in the court and haven’t yet asked any defendants to participate in the stings.

As for DeLuca, Chamberlain said she asked him to be a decoy because he seemed to be easygoing and level-headed.

“When this came up, I thought he would be an excellent candidate for it,” she said. “The sting operations, they’re not really trying to deceive the people into selling them alcohol. They just want a kid who might not be 21 to see if they’re going to comply to make sure they’re checking their ID.”

DeLuca is pursuing environmental studies at Hudson Valley Community College and said he doesn’t have an interest in a law profession.

DeLuca said that although he is no stranger to underage drinking himself, participating as a decoy helped him appreciate all of the work that goes on behind the scenes in law enforcement.

“I have a younger brother and a younger sister, and you always hear the stories of the drunk [driving] car accidents on prom night,” he said. “I just know I would be crushed if that was my brother or my sister.”

DeLuca turns 21 today and declined to have his photo taken for this story, although he said none of his friends gave him a hard time because he helped out the police.

“A couple of my friends I went to high school with had done [stings] in the past and we weren’t mad at them for doing it,” he said.

“I don’t know many people in [the community where the sting was]. If I were to do it here in Burnt Hills, it might be a little different.”