N.Y. Cops In Pa. Fireworks Stakeouts (NYPD seizes cars of NYers who legally buy fireworks in PA)

NY Post ^ | June 19, 2006 | Larry Celona And Dan Mangan

[dead]

Undercover NYPD cops are cracking down on New York buyers of illegal fireworks by staking out Pennsylvania vendors - and, for the first time, seizing the cars of people who travel out of state to get their Fourth of July fireworks.

So far this year, cops have seized 30 vehicles belonging to New York ers as they return home from Penn sylvania after buying fireworks there, and have arrested 60 people, according to a report in New York magazine this week. The report says undercover cops have been watching Pennsylvania fireworks vendors and looking for New York license plates. The heightened enforcement comes after Mayor Bloomberg's law-enforcement officials noted an increase in illegal fireworks set off during last Fourth of July on Staten Island.

One Pennsylvania merchant, Bill Weimer, told the magazine that he asks New York police to quit taking pictures of his customer's license plates and leave his stores but that they go across the street and "give off that New York cop attitude."

In an odd twist, New Yorkers - who are barred from possessing fireworks in their home state - can legally buy them in Pennsylvania, which prohibits sales only to its own residents.

A law-enforcement source told The Post yesterday that the NYPD also has confiscated hundreds more cases of fireworks this year compared with last year. More than 1,000 cases have been seized to date, as against 150 last year...

[roaddog727]

Doesn't the NYPD have anything better to do than bust people for fireworks?

Like cracking down on Gang violence and conducting counter-terrorist watches?

SHeesh.

[The Red Zone]

Hm, was not aware Alaska countryside was so flammable. Even in winter when all the snow and ice comes?

[dead]

I don't even know what you're responding to. I never called for the legalization of illegal fireworks.

Did you bother to read any of this thread before sharing your fears with us?

[Dead Corpse]

No thanks. Keep 'em illegal.

Hey... we can ban all kinds of things like that using your logic. Cars, they kill tens of thousands a year. Guns. Come on... Swimming pools. More kids drown in the back yard pool than are killed by guns! Ban 'em all...

After all, these things do all that damage by THEMSELVES right? There isn't a human there being irresponsible that is the real cause...

Right?

[FrankR]

We can't keep the mexican drug cartels out of the country, but boy we can sure crack down on the cherry bomb trade.

[Leatherneck_MT]

"Eventually they will seize your vehicle for failure to wear a seatbelt if they so"

Or because you had the audacity to think you owned it in the first place.

This country needs another revolution.

[verity]

Hoosiers are smarter than New Yorkers.

[Kenton]

So you can buy fireworks in Pennsylvania, but only if you are not a resident. Nice.

Well, Pa. residents can buy SOME fireworks legally, but they're the really wimpy stuff like "snakes" and sparklers.

The Pa. fireworks places (at least the one we always stop at, "Big Woodies" in Erie), has a back room with the "illegal" stuff, like firecrackers, bottle rockets, etc. You have to show an out-of-state license to go back there to shop. And when you buy the stuff, you have to sign a voucher saying you are taking it out of state.

Being from Ohio, I can buy them when the kids beg loud enough.

Folks from Pa. can come right across the line and buy them in Ohio, providing they show an out-of-state license and promise not to shoot them off IN Ohio.

Got it? ;)

[Kenton]

My big brother, the boy scout, used bow and arrow to shoot sparklers way up into the sky. Looked nice. One arrow came down about a foot and a half from where I was standing... SHOOMP right into the ground. We were crazy and wild then.

LOL... Me too! My father put a stop to that when I started a major grass fire in the field behind our house.

[Cyber Liberty]

That's my take on it as well. The NYC Jackboots had no right to stake out anything in PA. If I were the owner of a fireworks store and I spotted them in my parking lot, I'd skip talking to them and just have them arrested for trespassing.

[Gabz]

I understand what you are saying, but I'm not so sure. "Professional courtesy" generally only goes so far.....and most LEA's don't like others invading their "turf" without permission.

[tcostell]

As an aside, when I was still living in Manhattan, the first apartment I had was in a building called "The Rivergate" on 34th and first. I had an 1 bedroom on the 28th floor with a huge balcony, and on a clear day I could see both the Atlantic ocean and the Long Island Sound.

But the best day to be in that building was the 4th of July because Macy's would hold it's fireworks display right outside my window in the east river. You couldn't even get up and down in the elevators after 2PM, and the line to get in the building would stretch up the block because ever resident with an ocean view would have a party.
I have to admit, it was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. Because of the way the river bends, fireworks would take up about 200 degrees of your field of view. Whats more, they would launch them from barges in the river and the shells would go about 28 stories into the air before exploding which put the bulk of them more or less at eye level. It was always quite the show.

[BurbankKarl]

Oh geez...

Of course, in CA the illegals just go to Oregon and steal the semi trucks full of fireworks and drive them back to the Central valley.

[from occupied ga]

No trial. No jury. just sell it?

Jawohl! Now not only does ny have the most liberal politics, they have an ardent fireworks gestapo too.

[The Red Zone]

Bro could shoot them hard enough that a typical 2 minute sparkler remained airborne until it burned out.

[Gabz]

Yup.

My dad confiscated his fair share of fireworks as a member of NYPD, but never did it out of state, and it was generally the result of a tip or some other thing.

The displays he and the other cops and FDNY members put on for the 4th at the beach club were absolutely AWESOME!!!!!!!!

[CT-Freeper]

I used to live in a county in NY that bordered Pennsylvania (Binghamton, NY area - in Broome County). There were a few places that sold fireworks just a few miles down the road into PA from where I lived. It was always fun making our purchases and then trying to "innocently" drive by the NY State Troopers or County Sheriff patrol cars that were idling just across the state lines.

One store that sold a few sparkler-type fireworks was literally feet over the state line, so the town cops would sit just inside NY, watch as people came out of the shop with their fireworks, and flag them down as soon as they crossed into NY.

[fortunecookie]

Grandma Bloomberg is such an ass.

LOL, he really is. It's sad to see how quickly he can devolve Guiliani's good works there.

I still can't believe they can seize the entire vehicle, instead of impounding it for a brief time or of merely seizing it's contents. Wow. I can't help but think of the ironies. NY guys busted, and losing their cars!, for coming here to buy a couple bottle rockets. Here where I am in PA, it sounds like a war zone around the 4th and Memorial day weekend, with folks even setting off fireworks for a week before and after Memorial Day, the 4th, graduations, just about anytime some summers.

[ASOC]

Actually yes. It gets so cold that trees are freeze dried for lack of a better term. We used to harvest a tree for Christmas until the local FD did a demo on post.

They took a tree (cut and put in water per usual) outside and flipped a match on it.

Went up like a rocket. We switched to artificial trees after that.

[laker_dad]

OK, I'll admit that I used to launch cherry bombs at the high school with my wrist rocket sling-shot. I pulled it back next to my face and had a friend light the fuse before I let'r go. Not too bright...