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Woman fined for picking up the wrong dog's poop

Lisa Katayama at 11:14 am Wed, May 19, 2010

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60-year old Pam Robson was fined 50GBP for picking up the wrong dog poop while walking her dog. "I felt as if my integrity was being questioned," Robson told the BBC.

I'm a contributing editor here at Boing Boing. I also have a blog (TokyoMango), a book (Urawaza), and I freelance for Wired, Make, the NY Times Magazine, PRI's Studio360, etc. I'm @tokyomango on Twitter.

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  • Anonymous

    One time, I got fined for flushing the wrong toilet in a public washroom.

    Oops.

  • Anonymous

    This probably qualifies as a “Close encounter of the Turd Kind”. Merde! I av never ‘urd of such a thing. I blame the hole thing on those scatterbrained plods. Just a bunch of Toscas.
    Mind you, I don’t blame her for kicking up a stink. It’s a a bum rap. They shoulda gone soft on her, but were probably trying to get a few extra runs on the board. The poor dear will be counting 2010 as her Anus Horibilus. Sorry but I couldn’t hold it in – I just had to weigh in with my two pennies worth. Dumping on Grannies is potty!

  • OldRipbeak

    Sounds like a bad sequel to Wallace & Gromit’s “The Wrong Trousers.”

    • Felton

      It’s the wrong poop! The wrong poop, Gromit, and it’s gone wrong!

    • Felton

      Not to scoop your joke or anything. ;-)

  • daneyul

    Why is it important to mention age in stories like this in the first sentence? Is there an agreed upon age threshold where we’re to assume helplessness on the victims part? Is 60 considered helpless?

  • Anonymous

    All these puns are terribly shitty.

  • steeroy

    I hate to be the annoying douche that blames the victim in the comments, but all we know about this is that a woman broke the law, whether it was an honest mistake or not, and a couple of quotes from her version of events. The case against her wasn’t dropped because she was innocent, but because it was getting bad PR for the council.

    I’m not going to say she definitely deserved the fine and cynically got away with it, but that would be just as justified as calling the officers involved bullies.

  • simonbarsinister

    Just remember she had to hire and pay a lawyer (solicitor) to handle this. It cost her a lot of time and money. The bullies won. Bullies never pick someone unless they know ahead of time they cannot lose.

    • Phikus

      But at least she proved she won’t take no crap from no one.

  • Anonymous

    Jobsworths have long been a plague on England; but Jobbiesworths…?

  • Felton

    Just like a cop, always stopping people for the wrong shit.

    • Phikus

      Nice! You got a royal flush on that one.

      • Felton

        Hehe! Royal flush. Good one.

  • Mitch

    Was she doing some sleight of hand picking up some more dried feces instead of her own dog’s very fresh feces?

  • cjp

    Good on them for dropping the fine. She should have told the officers to scat and go do their business elsewhere. Not a matter to be poo-pooed, for sure. I fear the reputation of the town has been soiled. What a waste of time and resources.

  • Chentzilla

    You got it backwards – she wasn’t fined for picking the wrong dog’s shit, but for failing to pick up her dog’s.

    • Phikus

      You gotta admit, it is rather shit for shat.

    • Markle

      On the contrary Chentzilla:

      “He said it was the wrong mess and that he was going to issue me with a fine for £50.

      “I picked up the other mess too and put it in the bag but he said I’d still be fined.”

      She left the park in a better state than she found it and the little shit still wanted to punish her. And then she gets less than a non-apology apology from the council. Asswipes.

  • Anonymous

    What are the names of these warders? Who is their boss? Shame is the best defense against bullies, and it’s a weird omission from this news story.

    • Raj77

      In the UK’s media culture, people who do small, irritating things like this generally aren’t named because they can face a disproportionate amount of harassment. The council will be receiving complaints, though, and will be freaking out internally about the bad publicity. They will never dump their low-level employees in it publicly, but there’ll likely be some internal ‘re-training’ stuff going on.

  • TooGoodToCheck

    On one hand, it sucks that the officers (wardens?) felt the need to fine her when she so obviously was trying to do the right thing. On the other hand, in a story like this, it’s actually quite a relief that the madness was isolated to one or two goons, and the adults stepped in to sort things out in a not unreasonable manner.

  • Sork

    On second thought, let’s not go to England. It is a silly place.

  • Eark_the_Bunny

    No one expects the Spanish Inquisition or the poop police for that matter!

    Eark the Bunny

  • Tavie

    @Sork #2 – you win at comments.

  • Phikus

    Such a smear on her reputation was a shitty thing to do, though it showes how important it is to know the poop about doggy do’s and don’ts. It is every citizen’s duty, so that you don’t get confronted by a couple of asswipes trying to make you feel like a turd.

  • jeligula

    I second Tavie. I read that and busted up.

  • mdh

    “…on this occasion the council will not be pursuing the non payment of the fixed penalty notice in the magistrates courts”

    that does not sound like a victory to me. Victory is when the ticket is invalidated, and the old lady is apologized to, and crow is eaten.

    • Anonymous

      I’m with you, mdh. “We’ll leave the fine on your record but are presently refraining from collecting it” fails to meet an appropriate standard of justice.

  • Brainspore

    If you’re feeling sorry for her just think about the poor saps who work in the evidence room at the local police station.

  • Anonymous

    Rephrasing a sign next to many cash registers:

    Got a poop? Leave a poop.
    Need a poop? Take a poop.

  • Crabby117

    Sounds like she needs to find a new lawn for poopsie to do her business… I nominate the lawn in front of the police station or court house.