When Etienne Constable of Seaside, California isn't using his boat to go fishing, he parks it in his driveway. He's been doing that for about four years. Out of the blue, city officials sent him a letter warning him that municipal code calls for boats and trailers to be "screened on the side and front by a six-foot-high fence."
Constable was pissed off but calmed down after he devised a clever plan. He installed a fence as instructed but then commissioned his neighbor, mural artist Hanif Panni, to paint a photo-realistic image of the boat on the fence so that passers-by could see it.
"We kind of hit the sweet spot between following the rules and making an elegant statement to the contrary," Constable said in the Washington Post.
The prank went viral and Seaside's acting city manager Nick Borges spotted it online.
Borges explained that Constable's letter was one of many sent following citizen complaints about lax code enforcement.
According to Borges though, Constable's case is closed. "The only action I'm going to take is a high five, and that's it," he said.
