Excessive Fines

John Stossel | 4.2.2025 1:11 AM

It's finally spring.

Better mow your lawn.

If you don't, your town government may fine you thousands of dollars a day.

Worse, if you can't pay the fine, they may confiscate your home.

Six years ago, in Dunedin, Florida, Jim Ficken let his grass grow.

His mom had died, and he'd left town to take care of her estate. He asked a friend to cut his grass, but that friend died, too!

In the two months Ficken was away, his grass grew taller than 10 inches.

City bureaucrats started fining him.

But they didn't tell Ficken that. When he finally got back, there was no notice of the $500-a-day fine. Only when he ran........

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