Bronx Woman Installs Cameras To Catch Dog Owners Who Don't Pick Up
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A woman in the Bronx was so tired of neighbors failing to pick up after their dogs.
As CBS2's Ali Bauman reported, Carole Bailey installed cameras to catch the dog owners in the act. The surveillance has been cleaning up the neighborhood.
Bailey spent $2,000 on the eight-camera security system outside her home in the Allerton section of the Bronx.
"I mean if you can't fix poop, what can you fix?" she said.
Bailey said her days were once spent raking dog feces away every time she left her house. Neighbors on her block agreed – locals are not following the city's pooper scooper law to pick up after their pups.
"If you live in this section and you don't know how to dance. you got to be kidding me," said neighbor Luis Herrera as he danced around. "Because you have to be walking like (this)."
"I was walking by and stepped on it and poop got on my shoe," said neighbor Jamie Cesario.
So Bailey invested in a way to catch the poop-etrators in the act. Now, when she sees something, she can run out and say something.
"If I can get at least 80 percent who would listen to me, I'll be happy, because that means it curbs the situation at least 80 percent," she said.
Bailey said a lot of the people she confronts don't even realize they can't leave their dog droppings on the grass. But it's true, you can get the same fine for leaving it on the grass as for leaving it on the sidewalk.
The fine is $250, and some residents want the city to give out more of them. But the Department of Sanitation tells CBS2, "Many times, dog owners don't have identification on them or refuse to give it to the Sanitation Enforcement Agent the identification so that the summons can be written."
For that reason, while Bailey said giving out more tickets would be a step in the right direction, it is the human interaction that has been clearing up her yard.
"It reflects where I live and I don't like it," she said. "This is my home, and this is what you're doing."
Now, Bailey said she is saving up for night cameras.
The exception to the pooper scooper law in New York is guide dogs accompanying any blind person.