LAPORTE | They're not exactly moonshiners, but four boys, three of them 15, were caught over the weekend in LaPorte with a partially consumed jar of cherries soaked in hard liquor.

LaPorte County Police Sgt. Mike Kellems, who made the arrests, said it's the first time he had come across corn liquor here in his 25 years in law enforcement.

''We obviously don't run across too many moonshine cases here,'' said Kellems.

Just after 1 a.m. Saturday, Kellems stopped a vehicle for erratic driving at Rose Street and East Jefferson Avenue. A back-seat passenger tossed a backpack into the rear compartment of the Cadillac Escalade. Kellems looked into the backpack and recovered a bottle of tequila and a partially consumed one-quart jar of moonshine-soaked cherries.

Kellems said the 100-proof jar came with a crude-looking label and was bought in Gatlinburg, Tenn., where moonshine-soaked cherries are legally sold as more of a novelty item.

Since taxes are paid at purchase, Kellems said the product more than likely is legal to have in other states.

''If it's for sale in Tennessee it certainly would be legal in Indiana as long as you are of legal age,'' Kellems said.