Something you don’t hear every day, a man avoids ticket thanks to McDonald’s item. A Connecticut jury decided to award no penalty to a man accused of texting and driving after hearing that the man was holding a McDonald’s hash brown instead of a phone.
The Hour reports that Jason Stilber was initially issued a $300 ticket after being pulled over by the Westport Police due to using his phone while driving. He was initially tried in Norwalk court, where he unsuccessfully plead his case. Months later, Stilber hired an attorney and reopened the case, managing to free himself from his penalty by providing records that proved that he wasn’t using his phone during the incident. The lawyer probably submitted a selfie of Stilber munching on the hash brown.
RELATED: April Is The Perfect Time To Find Hungry Alligators Prowling Florida Streets
Stilber’s attorney also provided documentation that showed that the policemen who took Stilber into custody had been on duty for 15 hours, suggesting that his lapse in judgement – re: confusing a hash brown for a phone – might have been due to exhaustion. “It just is proof that police officers — there’s nothing nefarious here — but that police officers are human and make mistakes. That’s all,” explains the attorney.
While Stilber didn’t make many declarations, he said that his run-in with the law had dampened his taste for hash browns. Next time you are in the drive-thru, remember the man avoids ticket thanks to McDonald’s item, choose wisely.
