He thought he was being targeted. A guy who lives in the country isn't used to seeing trash littered and constantly dumped on his property. So when empty Lipton tea bottles were thrown on his property in the same spot--every day for two years including Earth Day and Easter Sunday--one Kansas guy wanted the source. The woman busted by a camera blames "impulse control", a disorder she seems to confuse with "lazy control".
Gary Bukaty lives in southeast Leavenworth County and he's been getting tired of the trash. Bukaty even began to wonder if someone had a beef with him -- since the Lipton bottles were left, daily, in virtually the same spot.
Gary Bukaty began logging the daily 'activity' -- and the farm guy even set up a camera in efforts to snap a lucky pic that could identify a motorist who was tossing a tea that tea. Those efforts paid off: A sport utility vehicle and its driver were shown to be the culprit -- leading to the capture, by the Leavenworth County Sheriff’s Office, of one Carole L. Green. The 50-year-old Green's been charged with four misdemeanor counts of littering.
It took awhile for Mr Bukaty to warm up to the idea of a camera. Once purchased, that camera proved very useful. In the interim, the man who said he felt like they were being "harassed" marked a 'B' on the calendar for every day -- over two years -- that a glass Lipton bottle was thrown by the roadside or on his property. It's all much nicer than an 'FU'.
As it turns out, no one's got a personal beef with Bukaty. At least, not until now -- when a specific someone's gotten hit with a very expensive $1000 littering fine for discarding empty, glass, Lipton tea bottles on the side by the road repeatedly. Carole Green explained to cops that the cause for littering wasn't harassment that was suspected. During the sentencing hearing, the litterer says her chucking tea bottles had nothing to do with anything personal against Bukaty. The woman simply happened to be finishing her bottle of daily Lipton right outside of Bukaty's home each day. When done, she'd simply toss it.
Adding insult to injury, that litterer happens to be a neighbor of Bukaty. One who is apparently also a very fast drinker. She lives just a mile and a half away.
The fine's $1,000 bucks -- $250 per episode, times four -- but court costs always drive things up a bit. All said and done, Carol Green's 'donating' $1,160 to law enforcement and the courts.
On the personal side of loss, Gary Bukaty blames a blown tire on the glass-bottle littering ordeal.
The kicker with the busted litterer: Green blames the Lipton tea bottle episode and her related littering on "impulse control" -- an issue, she says, that troubles her. Apparently that's an issue that troubles others around her as well. The Kansas woman produced a letter for the judge, from a mental health provider -- intended to support her claim and case. It's not clear what the Kansas judge's reaction was to that intended 'evidence'.
If the litterer's argument is true, then apparently an "impulse" must strike at exactly the same time and place every day for Carole Green. Perhaps the woman is confusing the disorder with "lazy control".