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Tape Shows Agent Writing Bogus Tickets

Posted on: Tuesday, 24 October 2006, 18:00 CDT

NEW YORK - A sanitation agent was shown on videotape breaking light bulbs on the street in front of a restaurant and then writing a littering ticket to the restaurant's owner, a state assemblyman said.

The video shows the uniformed Department of Sanitation agent dropping several long fluorescent bulbs in the Brooklyn street. A street-sweeping truck cleans the mess soon after, and then the agent writes a $300 ticket to the restaurant's owner for improper disposal of the lights.

The ticket was issued Oct. 19 less than an hour after the H.K. Tea & Sushi restaurant's surveillance camera caught the agent breaking the bulbs.

Assemblyman William Colton, a Democrat who represents the neighborhood, said Monday he was furious that the Department of Sanitation would target store owners with bogus tickets. He said the agent pulled the same stunt on at least two other businesses on the block.

"The reality is he gave a ticket to three store owners for the same offense," Colton said.

He accused the city of encouraging its agents to write tickets to increase government revenue.

The store owners, who attended a news conference with Colton, were angered.

"Well, it bothers me," Martin Zalta said. "If I don't do something wrong, why should I get a ticket?"

The Department of Sanitation said it was investigating and planned to look at the videotape.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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