Police Issue $50 Ticket to Woman Over Facebook Post: She 'Knowingly' Brought Dog to Park Without Permit
Apparently, anything you say or share on Facebook can be used against you, even by law enforcement officials.
Christine Adamski, a 25-year-old woman who lives just outside of Chicago, discovered that the hard way when she received a $50 police citation in the mail for a self-incriminating Facebook post that she claims was misinterpreted by authorities.
Police from the Will County Forest Preserve District accused the woman of "knowingly" bringing her dog to the Whalon Lake Dog Park in Naperville, Illinois, without a permit based on a Facebook post she wrote. In the message, the dog-lover admitted that she didn't purchase a permit for the park. She also talked about the bad case of kennel cough that was rumored to have afflicted the dogs in the park.
"I was feeling bad that I haven't bought a pass and been bringing Ginger there but I'm pretty glad I haven't. So not going to worry about it until later. I hope all the doggies get better soon," read the post, according to Yahoo! Shine.
In response, a forest protection district employee who noticed the comment forwarded it to a forest preserve protection officer, who in turn, thought that woman was using the dog park without a permit.
However, Adamski, who lives in the town of Bolingbrook, said police misunderstood her Facebook post and that she did not bring her dog to the park at all in 2014. "I laughed. I was like, this is totally untrue. Obviously I'm not going to pay this," she told the Chicago Tribune.
After receiving the citation, she followed up by writing another message on the dog park's Facebook page that said, "That's dead wrong. I haven't gone there since 2013!"
On Thursday, Adamski said she was notified that the police department acquiesced and rescinded the $50 ticket since proper protocol was not used by the officer who issued the citation.
"Normally, we would investigate the issue with a follow up phone call or possibly a home visit, but since proper protocol wasn't followed, we didn't pursue the matter," said Lt. Tracey Phillips of the Will County Forest Preserve District Police.
Adamski said she wishes the officer who issued the ticket would have re-read her statement and used more than a Facebook post as evidence against her.
"The employee had good intentions, but it wasn't a good idea," Lt. Phillips said.
Forest Preserve District Executive Director Marcy DeMauro claimed that the district does not monitor social media in search of potential law breakers and that the district should not issue a citation based on messages posted on a social media site.
"We treat any information like that as a tip and that has to be verified before any action is taken on our part," she said. "We would go to the dog park to see if that individual is actually there and using the dog park without a permit."
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