A Georgia trash collector will spend 30 days in jail because he showed up to work two hours before he was supposed to.
Kevin McGill, who works for the private company Waste Management Inc., showed up a few minutes after 5 a.m. one morning to pick up trash in Sandy Springs, WABC reports.
A city ordinance requires that trash only be picked up between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Because of his misdeed, McGill was sentenced to 30 days in jail, the maximum sentence he could have received. His crime of picking up trash too early was the only infraction considered by the judge who sentenced him.
He now plans to spend every weekend over the next three months in jail, so he can work during the week.
"I was stunned," McGill said, according to WABC. "I didn’t know what to think."
VICE spoke to Sandy Springs prosecutor Bill Riley who said jail time is necessary to make sure trash collectors don't start collecting garbage in the early morning hours.
"We look for the minimum punishment what will deter the crime," Riley said. "We tried forever not to put anyone in jail for these cases, but it wasn't working."
Sandy Springs spokesperson Sharon Kraun didn't immediately return a request for comment from The Huffington Post, but she told VICE, "Our residents, they like their quality of life. And that means not waking up at 5:00 AM to hear the trash can."
VICE also points to a 2012 New York Times story about Sandy Springs farming out nearly all of its services to private companies.
To grasp how unusual this is, consider what Sandy Springs does not have. It does not have a fleet of vehicles for road repair, or a yard where the fleet is parked. It does not have long-term debt. It has no pension obligations. It does not have a city hall, for that matter, if your idea of a city hall is a building owned by the city. Sandy Springs rents.
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