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Man gets ticketed for warming up car in his driveway

ROSEVILLE, MI (WCMH) – A Michigan man vented on Facebook after a police officer gave him a ticket for warming up his car in his own driveway.

“Every person warms up their car,” Nick Taylor said. “We live in Michigan!”

Taylor told WDIV that he started his car Tuesday morning and went inside for five minutes while it warmed up. When he went back outside, he saw that he received a ticket that said “motor vehicle unattended.”

“Vehicle parked in drive with keys in ignition, motor running – no one around,” the Roseville officer wrote on the ticket.

“I was furious when I saw it,” Taylor said.

Thursday, Taylor went to Facebook to vent about the incident, saying “Let’s all take a moment to thank officer dips*** K. Keary for wasting the taxpayer’s money and giving me a ticket for warming up my car in my own d*** driveway.”

“You’re putting the public at risk,” Roseville police Chief James Berlin said. “This is purely a public safety issue.”

Michigan, like Ohio, makes it illegal to leave a vehicle unattended while the motor is running.

In Ohio, if you’re caught starting your car to let it warm up and then heading back inside, you could face misdemeanor charges. And no, it doesn’t matter if your car is on private property or not.

The Ohio Revised Code reads:

No person driving or in charge of a motor vehicle shall permit it to stand unattended  without first stopping the engine, locking the ignition, removing the key from the ignition,  effectively setting the parking brake, and, when the motor vehicle is standing upon any grade, turning the front wheels to the curb or side of the highway.

There are similar “no idling “laws on the books in Kentucky, Washington and Indiana.

Berlin said he’s not tearing up the ticket. He’s also angry about the online name calling.

“You see the disparaging comments he made about my officer?” Berlin told WDIV. “Drop dead.”