Officer Litterbug McLazy

Today on my way into work, I saw an interesting sight. And by "interesting," I mean perplexing and odd.

I was stopped at the intersection in front of my school, and I saw a cop do a quick U-turn and kick on his lights. I thought for sure that he had caught someone doing something illegal. Instead he stopped his car a few feet after his U-turn and got out of the vehicle. I then noticed that there was a large, empty cardboard box lying in the lane of traffic. I thought to myself, "How nice. He's going to pick up that box so that an accident can be avoided."Well, I was partly right.

The officer proceeded to kick the box across the two lanes of the road until he had deposited up on the curb (which, as it happens, is my school's property). He then returned to his car and drove off.

Huh? Seriously? While he didn't put the box in the street originally, isn't what he did really close to littering? It must be second-hand littering or littering by association or something. What galls me even more is that it took more time and effort to kick the box across two lanes of traffic than it would have to pick it up, throw it in the back seat, and deposit it in the trash later. I appreciate his effort and desire to prevent an accident from occurring, but seriously, dude. The box wasn't even wet or dirty or mangled (which I would have then understood more if he didn't want to mess with it. Who wants a soggy, smelly, melting hunk of cardboard in their car?); it was solidly constructed, pre white, and completely intact.

Clearly the Cary Police are here to serve and protect. Just not the environment.