What one elderly woman in NYC thought was a good deed was actually a violation worthy of a $100 ticket from the Dept. of Sanitation.

The 80-year-old woman tells the NY Post that she was slapped with the hefty fine when she tried to keep the streets clean by tossing out her newspaper in a city trash can.

“I was walking to take the subway downtown and dropped it in a trash can, and this lady in a blue uniform ran up to me,” she tells the paper. “I thought she was going to ask for directions. She said, ‘You just dropped garbage in there.’

“I said, ‘I didn’t, it was just a newspaper,’ and I offered to take it out.”

The ticket was written for placing “improper refuse” in a city litter basket. The Post says the bin in question is marked with signs that read “litter only” and “no household trash.”

The Dept. of Sanitation tells the Post, “Being fined for tossing a newspaper into a basket is odd…. Too many apartment dwellers use the corner litter basket as their personal household dumping site.”

The woman says that she intends to fight the fine, but that if she doesn’t pay up within 10 days it will soar to $300.

Some of you may remember that the NYC Dept. of Sanitation attempted to fine a man $2,000 for picking up an air-conditioner that had been left on the curb as trash.

Granny’s $100 ticket – for throwing out newspaper [NY Post via Gothamist]

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