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Judge: Harbor a duck, face up to $500 bill

A condo owner who leaves her garage open has six months to mend her ways.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published March 11, 2007

PINELLAS PARK - Tracy A. Thomas' fondness for ducks may cost her.

The Pinellas Park condominium owner was found guilty Friday of a duck-related charge for the second time. Thomas, 45, was convicted of "harboring" ducks by leaving her garage door raised so they could waddle in and snack. Although the fine could be as much as $500, she won't be sentenced for six months.

Judge Robert C. Dittmer told Thomas that if she keeps her garage door down, except when coming or going, and does not feed the ducks during that time, he will not impose the fine.

Thomas was fined $250 last year for feeding the ducks at her home in Lake Forest Condominiums, where she has lived for 17 years. It is illegal to feed wild animals, including Muscovy ducks, in Pinellas Park.

Thomas, who had acted as her own attorney Friday, said she was not surprised by the judge's decision. "Everyone loses in there," Thomas said.

And, despite testimony concerning 30 feet of duck feces, Thomas was not convinced that leaving the garage door up is such a bad thing to do.

"I still think it's ridiculous that anybody could control what I do with my garage door," she said.

Thomas said she might continue to leave her garage door up, but only at night, when the condo's maintenance man is not around to see it.

The maintenance man, Joseph Abrantes, was one of the two witnesses Pinellas Park city attorney Jim Denhardt called to testify against her.

Abrantes had taken pictures of Thomas' driveway and the walk at her front door to show the amount of poop that the ducks left behind.

Thomas objected to the picture being admitted as evidence. It's not relevant to the charge of harboring ducks in her garage, she argued.

The judge said he needed to listen to the worker's testimony to see if it was relevant, and then had to reprimand her when she continued her protests.

"Ma'am, stop talking. Stop talking," Dittmer said. "You do not continually need to object."

He overruled her objection.

Pinellas Park police Officer Steve Vangeli was the other witness.

He testified that he had visited Thomas' home approximately 17 times to try to work things out with her. But, he said, Thomas did not come to the door, nor did she call him after he left his card at her door seven times.

The neighbors, Vangeli said, have had to defend themselves against renegade ducks.

"They had to put up little barricade fences so the ducks would not come on their property," Vangeli said.

During the hearing, Thomas denied that she left food inside the garage for the ducks.

She said she started feeding the ducks years ago and that some of them were born on her property. Feeding the ducklings, she said, was "how I got sucked into feeding the ducks years and years ago. ... They must have imprinted on me."

She stopped feeding them long ago, she said.

Now, the garage door is left open for two of her cats to go in and out. One of her cats won't use the cat door, she said. The other is too fat to fit through it.

"That's the extent of my terrible crime," Thomas said. "I haven't done anything to promote the ducks being there for over a year, yet I'm being harassed.

"I feel persecuted by this."

On cross-examination, Thomas conceded that she does have to chase ducks out of her garage several times each month.

At the hearing's conclusion, Dittmer told Thomas that he believed she probably was feeding the ducks, but that the evidence did not prove it. However, he said, the evidence did show she was "harboring" the ducks by leaving the garage door open and giving them a place to go.

Dittmer also reminded Thomas that Pinellas Park has rules against allowing cats to run free. If she continues to allow her cats to run in and out, he said, she could be charged with breaking that law, too.

"They had to put up little barricade fences so the ducks would not come on their property,"

Officer Steve Vangeli, who said neighbors have had to defend themselves against renegade ducks

[Last modified March 10, 2007, 20:53:43]