I "called out" a car full of litterers.

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:19 pm

Yesterday evening I was driving home and saw a big mac box and a cigarette butt thrown from the blazer in front of me.

I grabbed a pen and paper and wrote "littering" beneath their plate number.

At the next light I pulled up next to them. Seeing the car was occupied by two middle-aged women, a younger gal, and a kid I decided to call them out (low risk). I rolled down my window and held out the notepad so they could read it.

The excuses started flying pretty fast, and I was in uniform, so I simply said, "Ladies, I saw you throw the burger box and cigarette out the window. I'll make you a deal - try to do the right thing from this point forward. I'm going to throw this piece of paper away, but just promise me you'll try to do the right thing for now on." They were clearly embarrassed and promised not to do it again.

I had some space in front of me, so I pulled forward. When the light for their turn went green they pulled up, waved, and the younger gal yelled out the window, "I love you!"

Thankfully, it ended well. Did I make a difference or just waste my time?

eric10mm · Post by **eric10mm** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:42 pm

They won't change. Tomorrow they'll do the exact same thing.

Litterbugs are selfish assholes.

silentobsession · Post by **silentobsession** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:44 pm

I HATE littering. I think the fine should be like $5,000. Maybe then people would reconsider.

kalikraven · Post by **kalikraven** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:45 pm

You should have balled up that piece of paper in fron tof them and tossed it out your window after they agread to stop littering.

rill · Post by **rill** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:46 pm

Hopefully you did make difference. I HATE people who litter. When I golf, I probably gather 1/2 a kitchen garbage bag of crap that people throw out on the course-- and these are nice courses. Cigarette butts are the worst. I'm a smoker, but I would never, ever, throw a butt on the ground. Those things last forever. I just don't understand the mentality of a litterer.

flip · Post by **flip** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 12:47 pm

I'll go with "they will do it again" for 100 Alex. I hate littering, our town for the most part is very clean and to see a bag full of garbage and other s--t along the road mildly pisses me off.

urban assault · Post by **urban assault** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 2:59 pm

You would have had more impact if you had dressed up like a wise old Indian chief, stood in front of their vehicle, and slowly turned to look at them with a single tear running down your cheek.

Powerful stuff! Of course in this day and age they'd probably just run you down and drag your body for a couple miles, eagle feathers and all.

Ya still did the right thing though, too bad more folks won't stand up when they see crap like this go down.

-urban

MaverickH1 · Post by **MaverickH1** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 3:20 pm

Which reminds me of a story

I was chilling at Sonic the other day with brother and his girlfriend. He saw a guy throw a bottle into the back of someone else's truck and then hop into his little ricer. Brother told me about it, so I stood up, grabbed the bottle out of the back of the truck and knocked on his driver door and said "Drop something?"

He was clearly embarassed about it, his face went straight from "I am badass" to "HOLY s--t I'M GOING TO DIE!" and he said that the truck belonged to his girlfriend and they play jokes on each other about it. He said it very quickly... and I believed him...

And I said "Well then I guess I'm the asshole" and went back to my meal.

Memories

Twinsen · Post by **Twinsen** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 6:58 pm

I'm pretty sure for a week they'll think twice before littering. But uh, no change.

apochachuva · Post by **apochachuva** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 8:02 pm

They'll probably do it again. On the off chance that that made them actually change, it was worth the effort.

rob_s · Post by **rob_s** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 8:40 pm

were they fat?

bakerjw · Post by **bakerjw** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 8:58 pm

They'll likely do it again but perhaps you did have some impact. Personally I'd like to see the penalty for littering (even a cigarette butt) be a minimum of 6 hours of community service picking up the road sides.

About 6 years ago before I moved here to Tennessee I used to bring my boat down to fish the mountain lakes here in the area where I now live in the Fall. Watauga lake which is the highest lake in the TVA managed waterway is nestled between 2 mountain ranges and is one of the most beautiful places I've ever fished. As it was there had been some heavy rains the week before I came down and as I went up the lake I encountered a line of garbage in the water. Down here idiot rednecks like to take their garbage out and throw it into ravines where it washes into the rivers and lakes.

People who litter sicken me to death. Good Job Smcharchan

Twinsen · Post by **Twinsen** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:03 pm

rob_s wrote:were they fat?

Actually yeah, that should tell the whole story.

MicroGuy · Post by **MicroGuy** » Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:45 pm

I do the same thing sometimes, and it doesn't make a difference, people just don't care.

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 6:17 am

rob_s wrote:were they fat?

Quite.

rob_s · Post by **rob_s** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 7:38 am

smcharchan wrote:
rob_s wrote:were they fat?
Quite.

They'll do it again.

Gross obesity is an indicator of mindset. I'm not talking "fighting" mindset or anything like that, but life mindset. Factor in the smoking and that pretty much cements the deal.

Hush · Post by **Hush** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 7:41 am

Yeah, you gotta watch out for those overweight gangbangers.

eric10mm · Post by **eric10mm** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:08 am

Twinsen wrote:
rob_s wrote:were they fat?
Actually yeah, that should tell the whole story.

How is that? I'm fat and I don't litter. Are you an asshole?

Baboon · Post by **Baboon** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 8:39 am

Could be they just want to create jobs for Obama. Did you see a Obama/Biden sticker on their vehicle?

ROFuher · Post by **ROFuher** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 10:22 am

My parents taught us as kids to police up our camp or work sites, including any rubbish that was there when we arrived. I do the same with my crew when hosting beach events. It amazes me when folk ask me why we are doing it.

Twinsen · Post by **Twinsen** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 2:10 pm

eric10mm wrote:
Twinsen wrote:
rob_s wrote:were they fat?
Actually yeah, that should tell the whole story.
How is that? I'm fat and I don't litter. Are you an asshole?

Nope, I'm fat too. You can't tell me you haven't noticed that fat people are fucking PIGS most of the time. Fat chicks? Come on now, let's be honest.

Hitman · Post by **Hitman** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 2:46 pm

They will (if they havent already) do it again.

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 3:53 pm

Who voted "mind your own business"?

Please state your case.

Blaubart · Post by **Blaubart** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:10 pm

I didn't vote, because there was no option for "You did the right thing". I don't know if you changed their perception of littering, or if they'll do the same thing again, but some people might stop acting like assholes if people would only take a minute out of their busy day to let them know that they're being assholes and they aren't as anonymous or invisible as they might think they are.

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:40 pm

Blaubart wrote:... but some people might stop acting like assholes if people would only take a minute out of their busy day to let them know that they're being assholes and they aren't as anonymous or invisible as they might think they are.

That is how I feel.

Ted Nugent feels the same way about robbers as we feel about assholes. He suggests that if everyone said "no" and shot them there would be a lot less robbers.

Our society's belief that "someone should do something, but I'm not that someone" disgusts me.

I "called out" a car full of litterers.

Did I make a difference?

I "called out" a car full of litterers.