Indiana Loc: Huntington, Indiana

So, I'm photographing the Ceylon Bridge, a Howe Truss covered bridge built in 1862, located in Geneva, Indiana, enjoying the sunshine, moderate weather, and the site to myself, taking shots from varied locations when this navy blue panel truck pulls into the parking area adjacent to the covered bridge, stops quicky, rolls down his window, and begins to toss his litter (including food) onto the parking lot like it was a land fill. I started moving quickly toward the truck, yelling at the top of my lungs to get his attention, as he finished his deposit and speed off onto the county roadway. As I am standing in the lot fuming, a police car comes down the road and responds to my yelling and thrashing my hands in the air for attention, and sure enough he sees me and whips into the stoned lot where I was standing. I briefly told his what happened and he quickly headed down the road in pursuit. A few minutes I finished my self-imposed assignment and traveled down the same road as the offender and the police used, but never ran into either one of them. I was still hot under the collar as I left Geneva, but I had to travel some distance to Matthews, Indiana to photograph the Cumberland Matthews Covered Bridge, another Howe Truss build of 1877, so I could not linger any longer in Geneva Just never know what a day with a camera will bring.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Too bad you weren’t able to photograph his license plate.

Bill_de Loc: US

Sure, then this would be about photography.



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SkyKing Loc: Thompson Ridge, NY

…as I get older I become more cautious…switching the camera or smartphone to video, and recording the incident, with license plate number, and forwarding the information to the police prevents my word against your word conundrum…?

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

You are lucky that they didn't get out and beat the crap out of you and take your camera.

Ruthlessrider

I had a similar event several years ago. I was leaving Marshfield on my way home at about noon. A group of HS kids in the car in front of me opened the window and threw out a bag of McDonalds containers and other refuse. Unfortunately for them, I was a HS principal in a rather large HS at the time and not intimidated by kids. Secondly, we were all stopped at a stop light. I got out of my car, walked up to their’s and told them they had two choice, they could get out of the car and clean it up, or I would call the police and report the incident with the license plate number. They made the prudent choice

dbrugger25 Loc: Raleigh, NC

A long time ago I had a manufacturing building that was next to a highway embankment. Twice every day we had to clean-up our property because people would throw their trash and garbage over the embankment. We filled-up a large dumpster twice a week with othe peoples' garbage. Sometimes it was rotting and stinky.

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

If it was that regular an occurrence, you should have been able to get the attention of the police. Most communities have laws against dumping. They might not have been interested in watching the area if it was a hit-or-miss situation but it sounds like there was enough activity that they should have been able to make arrests.

dbrugger25 Loc: Raleigh, NC

We did contact both the state and local police. They agreed to be observent but were unwilling to station someone there. Many different people were using our property as a dump site. On a couple of instances ther went through the garbage and found several pieces of mail with addresses on them. They sent warning notices to those people and might have visited a few of them.

I don't think they rated it as a big enough problem to justify spending a lot of their time. We wanted to keep our property pristine so we just cleaned it up every day. I did phone some of the violaters and asked them to stop but it didn't have much effect.

Jim Plogger Loc: East Tennessee

Trash tossing trash!

Cometguy Loc: Central Indiana

Doesn’t that Matthews bridge seem huge? I am amazed at how long it looks.

Indiana Loc: Huntington, Indiana

The Cumberland Bridge in Matthews is listed at 175', and yes, it is a long bridge. The Medora Covered Bridge in Jackson County is 434', and is claimed to be the longest covered bridge in the U.S.

rpm Loc: Houston, TX

Indiana, I'm on the east side of Houston, TX & trash being thrown is now a way of life for us here. It didn't use to be like that... Sorry for your litterbugs; maybe the best you can do is just pick it up & go on. Interesting to note that if you go up into "the hill country " west of Austin it's pristine. Could you post a picture of the bridge your talking about? We don't have those down here. Thanks, rpm

revhen Loc: By the beautiful Hudson

Suggestion: If you get an address in dumped trash, take it to them. If you are bold, say, "I think you dropped something you own."

ELNikkor

Or, if there is an address and you are adventuresome, pick up the whole works in a lawn bag, look them up, and return to sender in the night.