Jeeper sows seeds of traffic ticket

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - When a New Mexico State Police officer pulled him over last month in Albuquerque, Joel Hall was confused.

He didn't think he'd been speeding and wondered if maybe a piece of trash had flown out of his open-air Jeep as he drove down Interstate 25. But when Officer Ben Arnold approached his window and told him the reason for the stop, Hall's jaw hit the ground.

"Throwing stuff out your window," the officer told Hall, according to video from the officer's dash camera.

"Sunflower seeds?" Hall asked.

"Yeah," the officer said.

Before the Aug. 9 stop the officer followed Hall for about five miles. The dash camera video shows Hall drop a sunflower seed shell out the window about every half mile.

"(The officer) was irritated," Hall told KRQE News 13 in an interview. "They're biodegradable; they're mulch. I felt like I had dumped my whole garbage can out."

Arnold cited Hall for littering and even suggested he purchase a small trash can for his Jeep for the sunflower seed waste.

Hall said he thought the ticket was "ridiculous."

"Anything that you throw out is littering," the officer can be heard saying on the video. "It doesn't matter if it's biodegradable or not. You can't just be flicking stuff out the window."

Hall, who is facing a $300 fine, pleaded not guilty to the charge last month in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court and plans to fight the ticket.

"They're sunflower seeds," he said. "It's not like I'm out there degrading Albuquerque."

Hall also said he won't change his behavior and plans to continue dropping sunflower seed shells out of his Jeep.