A Michigan man received a $128 ticket for leaving a car running in the driveway in Michigan, according to local media reports.
Nick Taylor, 24, left his vehicle running at his girlfriend’s house as he was picking up her 2-year-old son in order to warm the inside of the car, CBS News reported. When he returned from her house, a $128 ticket was lodged under his windshield. He left his car unlocked with the keys in the ignition.
“I was there for maybe seven or eight minutes before I noticed the ticket,” Taylor told CBS. Later, he posted the ticket on his Facebook page, writing that it’s “wasting the taxpayer’s money.”
“Every person warms up their car,” Taylor later told WDIV. “We live in Michigan!”
Police Chief James Berlin, however, doesn’t view it the same way.
“This is purely a public safety issue,” he told Fox 2. “You see it all the time, people hop in a running car and steal them. Something bad happens when that occurs.”
Furthermore, Berlin champions it.
“I encourage our officers to write this ticket,” he told CBS. “All it takes is someone to hop in this car and take off. Then there’s a chase often at a high rate of speed and all that could have been prevented.”
Reports indicate that Berlin will not tear up the ticket, and Taylor has to make an appearance in court.
