What’s with all these cities and towns with crazy new laws lately? The other day I wrote about a town in Ohio that’s going to put people in jail for not mowing their lawn and now Charleston, S.C. is going after people that leave chewing gum on street poles.

I’ve never been to Charleston, but apparently the poles have been an unsightly Charleston landmark for years now. Three utility poles at the entrance to the South Carolina city’s popular outdoor market are routinely plastered with used chewing gum. So much so that the poles are a rainbow of colors thanks to the gum. Workers regularly clean the poles of gum but people just keep sticking more on them again.

The City Traffic and Transportation director Hernan Pena thinks this is a big enough problem that he’s asked police to keep close watch on the poles and they’ve even discussed installing surveillance cameras.

Maybe they should just place garbage cans near the poles? I’m sure that would save the cities tax payers a lot of money compared to police and video camera surveillance!

Police said anyone caught plastering gum faces a maximum fine of $500 and 30 days in jail.