Posted on 02/11/2011 6:53:03 AM PST by tje
BRANCH COUNTY, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A Brighton man is in trouble with the law for bringing aluminum cans from Indiana to Michigan to collect the deposits.
On Monday night state police troopers pulled over 64-year-old John Woodfill for driving erratically. He was driving a van with a trailer that didn't have a tailgate.
In the back were more than 60,000 aluminum cans
(Excerpt) Read more at wwmt.com ...
I see.
If I could get my hands on 60,000 cans - - then I also would be in Michigan.
“...it’s called arbitrage...”
Even worse. This is garbatrage.
I’d fight this citing the Interstate Commerce clause. If the commerce clause fits, you must acquit.
I guess I am somewhat unsympathetic about this - why tell the cops anything - he could have said he was melting them down for scrap - what an itiot.
On the other side - we buy 8 or 10 cases of drinks locally here in MI each year and take them to the air show at Oshkosh WI. Dump them in the garbage there so he is just recoping my losses....
Now he’s in the can...............
He should have told the cop he was an artist and had a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts to create an aluminum scrap sculpture of St. Peter on the can...
445.574a.added Prohibited return; violation; penalty.Unless the law has been updated, I don't see how that gets to be a felony.Sec. 4a. (1)A person shall not return or attempt to return to a dealer for a refund 1 or more of the following:
(a)A beverage container that the person knows or should know was not purchased in this state as a filled returnable container.
(b)A beverage container that the person knows or should know did not have a deposit paid for it at the time of purchase.
(2)A person who violates subsection (1) is subject to 1 of the following:
(a)If the person returns 25 or more but not more than 100 nonreturnable containers, the person is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not more than $100.00.
(b)If the person returns more than 100 nonreturnable containers or violates subdivision (a) for a second or subsequent time, the person is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 93 days or a fine of not more than $500.00, or both.
(c)A person found guilty under this subsection shall be ordered by the court to pay restitution equal to the amount of loss caused by the violation.
60,000 X .10 = $6000.00, not a bad haul ....
“knows or should know”??
Sounds like any lawyer with a correspondence course degree should be able to talk your way out of that one.
The concept of the state charging a deposit is ludicrous. There are plenty of people willing to scavenge cans for the scrap value.
The purchaser would be run though a background check to see if there were any littering offenses in their past. After passing the background check the serial numbers as well as the purchasers name, address etc would be retained on file to prosecute litters after the crime was committed.
Since the tabs are removable they would be limited in size.
I live near the MI boader and see people do this all the time.
"How do you know you have too many laws on the books?"
Sounds like any lawyer with a correspondence course degree should be able to talk your way out of that one.
I think buying them from a scrap yard in Indiana would fall under the "knows or should know" clause. If I were on the jury and the evidence was presented as given in the story I would vote guilty. He was trying to scam a $6000 refund for deposits which were never paid. That's fraud, just the same as if I send in a 1040 form and claim I paid $6000 in estimated taxes and now want refunded, but I never actually made the estimated payments.
Now, on the other hand if he had just kept his mouth shut rather than confessing, the cops wouldn't have had any information on past offenses and would have had a hard time prosecuting this one unless they followed him to see him get a refund and somehow knew that those were Indiana cans rather than Michigan cans.
When you buy a soft drink or beer in Michigan in a can or bottle you pay a 10 Cent deposit, if you bring it back you get the 10 cents back. It cuts down on littering, works well in that sense. The cans and bottles sold in Michigan state the fact that they are refundable for 10 cents, what this guy was probably doing was bringing cans that were sold in other states to Michigan to hopefully get a 10 cent deposit on it. That would be illegal. If some one buys a coke in Michigan and throws it out the window in Ohio and you find it you can take it to Michigan it get that guys 10 cents he threw out the window, but if you buy a coke in Ohio and take it across the border to attempt to get 10 cents off the can bought in Ohio they won’t give it to you, because the can will not say anything on it that indicates it was bought in Michigan or any of the states that participates in the program.
BFL
Your nickname has been forwarded to:
Michigangovernor'smansion.gov
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.