c/dumb-laws-we-found

That $150 'anti-bark' collar I swore was a scam actually worked on my neighbor's dog

Been telling my neighbor for months those shock collars are cruel and don't work. But she showed me the one she got from a trainer in Portland, it just sprays citronella. After 3 days her beagle stopped yapping at squirrels. Now I gotta admit I was wrong about the whole category. Anyone else find a gadget they trashed talked but then saw it actually do something?

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david_rivera4•18d ago

Found a dumb law in my town about washing cars on Sundays

I was reading the town code for my city in Ohio last week and found out it's actually illegal to wash your car with a hose on Sundays before noon. Apparently some old ordinance from the 1950s to keep noise down. I tried it anyway last Sunday at 11am and my neighbor actually threatened to call the cops on me. Has anyone else run into a law like this that sounds completely made up but is real?

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campbell.tara•19d ago

Found out my town has a law against feeding pigeons after 3 PM

I was at the county clerk's office in Brunswick last Tuesday renewing my car registration and saw this old poster on the wall. Apparently since 1997, you can't scatter birdseed in public parks between 3 and 6 PM. My neighbor Mrs. Garcia got a warning last spring for tossing breadcrumbs at the courthouse square. Has anyone else run into a weird feeding time restriction?

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piper912•20d ago

Still think that law about no ice cream in your back pocket on Sunday is just a joke? I call BS on that being real.

I keep seeing people bring up that silly law from Idaho about ice cream in your back pocket on a Sunday, and it drives me nuts because it never existed. I actually looked it up on the Idaho state legislature site last year, and the closest thing is a 1920s ordinance in Boise about selling frozen treats after 6 PM, not pocket storage. Why do folks keep repeating this false story as if checking the source is too much work? Has anyone here actually verified one of these 'dumb laws' they post?

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grant.nina•20d ago

Showerthought: The weird law about feeding pigeons in Venice, Italy

I was planning a trip to Venice last month and stumbled on a law that says you can get fined up to $700 for feeding pigeons in St. Mark's Square. Apparently they passed it in 2008 after the birds got too aggressive and damaged the monuments. Has anyone else run into a tourist trap law like this while traveling?

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josephl67•22d ago

Tried the $5 fix for a broken flagpole instead of spending $80 on a new one

I was gonna just buy a new pole at Home Depot after my neighbor's kid snapped the rope pulley. But my buddy Jeff talked me into a $5 repair kit with a new cleat and nylon rope from Ace Hardware in Bakersfield. Has anyone else had luck fixing old flagpoles instead of scrapping them?

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verar21•23d ago

Serious question, is it dumber to ban ice cream trucks after 8pm or to allow them all night?

I moved to a small town outside Milwaukee last year and found a local law that bans ice cream trucks from playing music after 8pm. Sounds reasonable right? But then I found another town nearby that lets them run until midnight. I had to pick between two houses. One in the quiet zone, one in the free-for-all. I went with the 8pm cutoff house because I have two kids under 6 who need sleep. But now my neighbor says it's a dumb law because kids miss out on summer treats. I'm starting to wonder if banning the music is actually worse than letting it play all night. What would you pick? A quiet night or ice cream freedom?

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the_ruby•24d ago

That town ordinance about not repairing your own fence on a Sunday nearly cost me $150

I live out in Boulder County, Colorado, and last month my fence blew down in a storm on a Saturday night. Sunday morning I started fixing it with a hammer and some nails, and my neighbor told me there's a local law against making noise or doing construction before noon on Sundays. I shrugged it off, kept working, and got a warning from a sheriff's deputy about violating a county nuisance law. Has anyone else ever run into a dumb local rule like this that just makes zero sense in an emergency?

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brian_ramirez•24d ago

That law about no shoes in the diner was a myth until I found the real one about ice cream

Honestly I always thought the whole 'it's illegal to eat ice cream on a sidewalk' thing was just a joke. Then last month my buddy moved to a small town in Alabama and sent me a pic of the actual town code. It says you can't eat ice cream while standing on any public sidewalk within city limits after 8 PM. I laughed until I looked up the town website myself and there it was in black and white, passed back in 1977. Tbh I still don't get the logic behind it but at least now I know the dumbest law I've ever seen is real. Anyone else find a law that sounded fake but turned out to be 100% legit?

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davis.noah•25d ago

Overheard a guy at city hall saying the 1967 law about no dancing in bars was never actually enforced and it made me realize how many dumb laws we just accept as real.

He pulled out the actual code book and showed me the fine was $5 and had no punishment assigned, so I looked up three other local laws my town claims exist and found two were completely made up by some clerk in the 80s - has anyone else caught their town faking old ordinances?

2 comments