Hearing a trash truck in the early-morning hours can certainly be annoying, but for one garbage collector, starting too early in an Atlanta suburb cost him 30 days behind bars.
That’s right. Kevin McGill, 48, an Atlanta husband and father of two, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for collecting trash too early for the wealthy residents of Sandy Springs, Ga. Apparently the suburb, located just north of Atlanta, bans trash collection before 7 a.m., and if residents hear trash trucks in their exclusive town—which reportedly includes NBA players and Delta Air Lines executives—they call 911, according to the Daily Mail.
McGill, who had only been working for Waste Management Inc. three months and had violated the ordinance only once, took a guilty-plea deal, and it is unclear if the details of his plea were clearly explained. McGill did not have a lawyer when he entered the agreement. He currently has a lawyer and “has filed a motion to withdraw his plea,” according to the Daily Mail.
McGill was sentenced Feb. 20, but the court was kind enough to allow McGill to serve his sentence on the weekends, allowing McGill to report to jail at 6 p.m.
The Daily Mail reports that there were no real negotiations between McGill and the court, and that Court Chief Solicitor Bill Riley claims that offenders who violate the egregious offense of working early should face jail.
“Fines don’t seem to work,” Riley told the Daily Mail. “The only thing that seems to stop the activity is actually going to jail.”
Riley didn’t stop there. He told the Daily Mail that jail was the right punishment and that McGill’s company should have informed him of the restrictions regarding the neighborhood. Riley also added that the early-morning pickups are a nuisance to residents who want to sleep and that he has met with Waste Management before about making sure it follows the ordinance.
A representative from Waste Management was with McGill when the sentence was handed down but had no idea that jail time would actually be issued and was expecting a hefty fine, according to the news site.
“The incident with WM employee Kevin McGill is very unfortunate, and we are currently working with WM legal counsel to resolve the situation,” Marla Prince, a company spokeswoman, told the Daily Mail.
Read more at the Daily Mail.