Litterbug = my pet peeve! And by golly was I peeved yesterday.
So, I was driving west on 1st avenue in St. Pete talking to my Dad on the cell phone (I know, I know, but he was in the hospital) and I was following behind a cab, taxi, whatever you call it. (Is there a difference?) Anyway, I see this cab driver arm come out and throw trash out the window! I could not believe my eyes.
As I am talking to my Dad I am fishing through my purse (phone on sholder now) trying to locate a pen to write down the cab's licence# when it dawns on me I could just hang up and call because the phone number of the company is on the vehicle!
So I call them and say I want to make a complaint about a driver. They asked "what did he do?" I explained the driver is throwing his trash out the car on 1st avenue and littering the city downtown. They asked if I could identify the car. I said that I could because I am behind it in traffic right now and gave them the car#, licence plate info, make, model & color of the vehicle although I suspect they are all white with the black bat logo.
He said "OK" but it just didn't feel like enough dialog to me so I asked him if the company was going to take responsibility for the trash. I believe the question surprized him but he said yes and assured me they would look into it.
Do you believe there is a chance in you-know-where that they sent that cab driver to pick up his/her trash?
I took this photo from the web site and blocked out the faces because I have no idea who was in that cab - I was behind him/her. I asked a coworker who used to be a St. Petersburg police officer if I had called the police instead of report littering if they would have come. She said it has been a long while since she was on the force but that it was unlikely. She said the police would probably have to witness the littering to write a ticket.
So basically there is no recourse unless the cab company follows through on it's word :(
3 comments:
Florida is probably different than here, but we have a litter control officer. They probably won't cite him, but with enough complaints they might. Also here you can press charges yourself. It is a $500 fine and picking up litter as punishment if convicted. Our guy is pretty good but it still comes down to folks like you. You at least took a stand and that is good.
Dirty litterbug. And he was also driving on the wrong side of the car, AND the wrong side of the road. ;)
Well, at least you put the squeeze on them. You could follow up with a letter to the owner with all of the details and who you had talked to at the company when it happened, and add a "copy" to the police department...it might at least make the owner talk to the drivers about that kind of behavior!
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