Just keep telling yourself, “They don’t have ticket quotas … they don’t have ticket quotas … they don’t have ticket quotas … right?“
Police wrote Queens hospital worker George Pulido a summons for making unreasonable noise because his son Christopher’s Winnie the Pooh balloon popped on the street.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Pulido, 29, of Queens Village, said last night. “It was just a normal-size party balloon and it was an accident. You’d make more noise closing the door of a police car.”
Pulido’s trip into the ticket twilight zone began innocently the afternoon of Nov. 22 when he took his wife, Christina, 27, an accountant, and sons, Chris, 9, and Brandon, 19 months, to a kid’s birthday party at a friend’s home in the neighborhood. Chris was holding a party balloon on a string as the family walked home when it suddenly got away from him at Parsons Blvd. and 105th St., hit the sidewalk and popped.
“Three cops were at the curb in a car and one of them called me over and said he was giving me a ticket,” Pulido said.
He said he asked the cop, “Are you serious? You’re gonna give me a ticket for balloon popping?”
“The cop gave me a hard look and asked me, ‘Do you think popping a balloon is funny?'” Pulido recalled. “At that point I just said just give me the ticket…whatever.”
I’m sure all the citizens of New York City can sleep more soundly tonight, knowing that the cops are on the watch for popping balloons.
(via Scott)
This might possibly be THE dumbest summons I’ve seen since I moved here to NYC in 1990. It’s truly surreal.
Pooh balloon ticket
NYC’s Finest continue their ticketing campaign said to be aimed at improving “quality of life” (if you call that living): “Police wrote Queens hospital worker George Pulido a summons for making unreasonable noise because his son Christopher’s Winnie th…
I realize I’m reaching here, but… I’ll bet that balloon sounded an awful lot like a gunshot and scared the peewads out of a trio of cops. Still, once they saw the man was with two small children and his wife certainly could have used common sense enough to know he wasn’t doing it to intentionally scare them.
Seems hard to believe, but these days… nothing shocks me.
Actually, that sounds almost plausible, aside from the whole “So we’re going to give you a ticket for it” thing.
(Welcome Overlawyered readers. Hope you enjoy the site.)
I’d say it’s unlikely, Tess, given the way the NYPD has been on a ticketing blitz this year. Let’s see, men received tickets for playing dominoes; a guy got a summons for sitting on a milk crate.
I doubt this was overly loud, especially over the din of NYC.
I think ticket writing is on the increase everywhere. I believe it’s to make up for budget shortfalls that have come from a lower tax base.
A balloon popping sounds nothing like a gunshot. A backfire, yes, balloon-popping, no.