80-year-old fined for trashing newspaper

Delia Gluckin, 80, tossed the paper into the city litter basket on her way to the subway station downtown when she was approached by a woman in a blue uniform, the New York Post reported Wednesday.

"I thought she was going to ask for directions. She said, 'You just dropped garbage in there.' I said, 'I didn't, it was just a newspaper,' and I offered to take it out," Gluckin said.

Sanitation cop Kathy Castro wrote Gluckin a ticket for putting "improper refuse" in a city litter basket marked "litter only" and "no household trash."

"I said, 'Look, lady, I'm a senior citizen. I'll just take it back.' I even said to her, 'Am I your first customer of the day?' I have a feeling she just wanted to make her quota," Gluckin said.

A sanitation official acknowledged being fined for putting a newspaper in a basket "is odd," but added "too many apartment dwellers use the corner litter basket as their personal household dumping site."

Gluckin said she'll contest the fine.

"I was never in trouble with anybody," she said. "I'm on a fixed income; I would have to sacrifice to pay the fine. And if I don't pay in 10 days, they up it to $300."

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