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Smoking a cigarette while alone in your own car is now a crime in some North American locations.
In fact, Harry Kraemer received three tickets for lighting up in his SUV.
Kraemer was trying to comply with an Ontario law called the Smoke-Free Ontario Act when he was ticked outside his cleaning company by a code enforcement officer. He started smoking in the SUV after being ticketed for smoking in his office.
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“I proceeded to have my coffee, my doughnut and my cigarette, and he walked up and he gave me three tickets,” Kraemer told The National Post.
Each ticket carried a $254.98 ($350 Canadian) fine, so the penalties totaled $764.94. Fortunately for Harry, a justice of the peace threw out the charges.
The code enforcement officer charged that Kraemer was smoking in a work vehicle, but his SUV did not contain any cleaning supplies.
According to the newspaper, the law bans smoking in “enclosed workplaces, enclosed public places, outdoor patios and vehicles where children are passengers.” The tickets were for “smoking in an enclosed workplace, failing to have a no-smoking sign in his SUV, and failing to properly supervise a workplace.”
“The purpose of the Smoke-Free Ontario Act is to protect people from the harmful exposure to second-hand smoke at work,” Linda Stobo of the Middlesex-London Health Unit told The National Post.
Kraemer only could shake his head. He acknowledges smoking is bad form him but nevertheless enjoys it.
“Very soon, they’ll keep coming and coming and coming at us and pretty soon we can’t have a smoke except in the middle of some farmer’s field,” Kraemer said.
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