A Pennsylvania woman took to TikTok to share her disappointment and frustration with Philadelphia’s “sanitation police.” While cleaning her yard, she had been suddenly approached by a member of the sanitation department who was on the verge of giving her a ticket.
TikTok user Dallassparks50 posted the encounter online in multiple parts. Dallas had expressed in her video she was in the midst of clearing her yard of debris and bagging it. She placed the trash bags in front of her house, still in her garden and not where trash pickup is.
The sanitation employee is seen poking at the trash bags with his foot. He sees Dallas in her yard and asks her to confirm if it’s trash or grass. “I was about to give you a ticket,” the employee says.
When Dallas asks why, given that she was right there actively cleaning, he admits he thought it was trash. Dallas adds commentary to the clip: “But it’s sitting in my garden, y’all. It’s not even at the curb, it’s not on the sidewalk, it’s not blocking.”
In part 2 of Dallas’s video on the encounter, she shares that she was told the trash bags had to be “behind the gate” and “hidden.” Dallas expresses how lucky she was to be outside when the sanitation department showed up, otherwise she’d have a ticket.
Dallas also managed to save her neighbor a ticket too when she was seen putting boxes outside. When asking for clarification, the employee stated that wasn’t allowed either, to which Dallas then warned her. “Don’t be afraid to speak up!” Dallas says.
Viewers react to Dallas’s TikTok video
Commenters flocked to Dallas’s TikTok video to share their frustration with the sanitation department in Philadelphia. Many wondered why they were busy bothering someone who was actively making their neighborhood look better as opposed to ticketing people that actually deserved it.
TikTok user Syreeta Brown shared such an opinion on her video, saying, “This city is ridiculous. They don’t clean up the trash but give tickets when residents clean. 🤦🏾♀️”
One TikTok user, Kathryn, backed that comment up with her experience. She shared that she had been reporting a neighbor in her area that has been dumping “cans & food over the sidewalk for almost a year” and claims “nothing” is being done about it.
Another TikTok user argued that people should be “happy” someone wants to ensure others aren’t breaking the rules. Dallas responded, stating she has “zero problem with rules” and defended herself further. She was bothered by the fact the employee was getting ready to hand out a ticket before confirming.
Other TikTok users started offering sarcastic solutions, with one user suggesting: “Let’s start writing tickets to the city for all the potholes they never fixed.” And anyone living in Pennsylvania will tell you just how bad the roads are!
The reason people felt so strongly for Dallas’s video is the fact regular people are already living paycheck to paycheck, and a random ticket for something as silly as a few trash bags that were being tended to sounds very pedantic.
