Calgary police give homeless man $500 ticket for littering in Bowness

A homeless man in Bowness recently found himself in trouble with the Calgary police when he decided to feed his leftover pizza to the birds.

He thought he was doing a good deed but policesaw it differently, and gavehim with a $500 fine for littering.

Bruce Jasson has lived in the John Hextall Park along the Bow River for nearly eightyears.He has a regularroute aroundthe area where hepicks upbottles.

A few days ago, he parked the baby stroller he uses to cart around his belongings to feed some leftover pizza to the birds.

When he returned twopoliceofficers wereat his stroller.

"The police officer, the one that gave me the tickethe's pushing my baby stroller. I'm yelling at him,'What do you think you're doing?' And I did kinda call him an a---hole because he said he thought it was abandoned," saidJasson.

Bruce suspects his reactionat the officer is whatescalated things.

Ticket payment concerns

Apolicespokesperson said the littering ticket was for leaving slices of pizza on the ground, andthe minimumamount for alitteringinfraction is$500.

Collin Spires, a local businessman and friend of Jasson's, says it's ironic the ticket is for littering. He says the 54-year-old regularly cleans the park. He questions the wisdom of issuing a homeless person with a huge fine.

"How do you pay it? He makes on average $17 a day picking bottles out of garbage cans, and cost of livinglet's call it $10 a day...that's going totake himhalf a year to pay a $500 fine."

Spires has given Jasson a job delivering flyers for his company.Jasson says he will fight the ticketif he can raise the $7 to pay for transit downtown to the courts centre.

Police say as long as Jasson attends his court appearance there are options available to him, like a repayment plan or community service and that's only if he is found guilty.

After this story ran on CBC Radio, Sean Currycame forward offering to to donate $50 toward the fine.

"Times are tough enough for everyone,and I'm sure one more roadblock in his life is not really what he needs," he said.