$100 fine for using trash can

[Abby Normal]

What is this world coming to???
www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/07/06/Woman-cited-100-for-using-trash-can/UPI-95601309964600/?spt=mps&or=5

NEW YORK, July 6 (UPI) -- An 83-year-old New York woman said she was fined and threatened with arrest by a Sanitation Department agent for putting old newspapers in a city trash can.

Darbe Pitofsky, 83, said she threw a paper bag containing the day-old newspapers in the city litter basket near her East 71st Street apartment at about 6:30 a.m. June 25 and she was quickly approached by a sanitation worker, CBS New York reported Wednesday.

Pitofsky said the worker demanded her identification to write a summons and threatened to "put her away" if she did not quickly comply.

"I froze," Pitofsky said. "He just frightened the hell out of me, scared me to death, I was terrified."

Pitofsky said the agent wrote her a $100 ticket after 25 minutes and threatened to increase it to $300 when she complained about the amount.

A Sanitation Department representative said the streetside litter baskets are for pedestrian use only and are marked with stickers reading "no household trash" or "no business trash" and warnings about $100 fines for violations.

Pitofsky said she has filed a complaint with the city.

I get that they don't want people using it instead of their household garbage. But sheesh.

[hoops902]

I don't really see any issue with her getting fined. You don't get to break the law just because you're old, and being old you'll get pity when they write a story about it. Sounds like she deserved the fine.

The only issue seems to be about how the worker handled the situation.

[bobosensei]

DH's brother and SIL were arrested for leaving a bag of their household trash outside the locked gate of their county trash area. It was locked because of a holiday. Other people had done the same thing so DH's brother didn't think anything about it. The county went through the trash and found a piece of mail with their information on it. SIL was 9 months pregnant when they locked her up, lol.

The entire family makes fun of them.

[Deleted]

A municipal worker with some initiative. He should be promoted.

[hoops902]

"Is the underlying issue the fact many cities/counties are going broke and desperate for $$? "

I think indirectly yes. The issue is that cities/counties can't keep paying for services just so that people can opt not to pay for those services themselves when they are supposed to. It's not much different than if you hooked up your electricity to the city system and stole electricity. They are paying for certain services for the overall city good. You can't just let people use those services for their personal use just because they feel like it.

[bobosensei]

In DH's family's case they were authorized use of the site. The issue was just leaving the trash in an unauthorized area.

[wodehouse]

Jul 7, 2011 12:08:01 GMT -5 bobosensei said:

DH's brother and SIL were arrested for leaving a bag of their household trash outside the locked gate of their county trash area. It was locked because of a holiday. Other people had done the same thing so DH's brother didn't think anything about it. The county went through the trash and found a piece of mail with their information on it.

There's a song about that... Alice's Restaurant


And this is a good reason not to put any identifying items in your trash.

[Angel!]

I wonder what the fine would have been if she had just thrown the bag on the ground? Perhaps next time she will think twice before using a trash can.

[bring in the new year]

I'm pretty sure that littering in NY is far more than a $100 buck fine.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Our City fines people for misusing trash cans (we've got three: one for garbage, one for green waste, one for recyclables). And there's a guy who comes by every Tuesday morning and checks all the trash cans on the block. Failure to rinse out recyclable containers gets you a warning the first time, a hefty fine the second time.

I wouldn't worry about jail, though .... they regularly book and release car thieves due to overcrowding, so I can't imagine they're incarcerating trash scofflaws.

[busymom]

At least the elderly woman was trying to put her newspapers in the garbage. Next time she'll probably be tempted to leave them on the subway, or somewhere else....

[cronewitch]

The elder woman was sneaking out early in the morning to put the day before newspaper in a can she knew wasn't for disposing of household trash.

We have rest areas on the freeways with garbage cans. We use them to empty our litterbags while traveling. If people bring garbage from home so they don't need to pay fees it would be wrong too.

[txbo]

My city started to regulate and enforce the one day you can water the lawn. First, they released that the watering day would be the same as the trash pickup day. I set my timer for Tuesday my trash day and had a family emergency in California my mother was dying. I came back four weeks later and had a court summons and a $150 fine because the city changed the day to Wednesday.