"Uncovered trashcan" fine at 3AM during high winds.

[boywonder.livejournal.com]

So how hard up is the City of Somerville for cash? So hard-up, it appears, that they issued an "uncovered trashcan" ticket at 3:00AM (yes, that's right, in the middle of the night) DURING a storm in which Somerville was experiencing high winds and rain. You all remember the one from a few nights ago.

My dad/landlord got a ticket in the mail yesterday, including a photograph of a trashcan on the ground with the lid off on the side of the house. Normally, our trashcans are locked tight with their covers, except, apparently, when high winds and rain knock them over. We are going to appeal the ticket. I just think it is outrageous that this was even issued. Trashcans were down all over the neighborhood, as well as roof shingles everywhere, and small to medium branches on the sidewalks and streets, etc.

Did anyone else get this fine or know of anyone else who had? I mean, if the trashcans weren't picked up and it was, say, 11AM, there may be some merit to the ticket. But since it was issued during the middle of the night and during an ongoing storm, it seems really bizarre.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I don't know what it was like at 3 am, but a few hours earlier Thursday night, I was struggling to walk from the Davis Square T stop to Day Street, and could make forward progress only after I folded my umbrella. There were tree branches down on Day Street next to the municipal parking lot, across from Ideal Engine and Sacco's Bowl-Haven.

(I thought trash day was Tuesday, not Thursday or Friday, in the Davis Square area?)

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

We're not far from Davis, and our trash day is Monday. However, if we did not have a porch to put our trashcans under (and thus out of the wind) I feel *confident* that a trashcan could have blown from a place near the house, not on the sidewalk, halfway to Oz in that wind...

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

a big plastic trash barrel blew from somewhere (i didn't see it actually moving) and landed on the sidewalk in front of the house next door to me. it looked like it might have bounced off the car that was parked there, altho the car didn't have any significant damage. but there was still a random trash can on its side on the sidewalk on a non-trash day. (ours are under our porch too. next door, not so much.)

boywonder? i would absolutely contest that ticket.