Can a village employee look over my 6 foot privacy fence and take pics without any complaints to bring them there in the first place. The village does this routinely and conveniently after storms I believe on purpose to collect money. I was at work on garbage day when a blizzard hit and made 7 foot drifts all the way down my gangway by the time I got home. I shovelled the three feet of snow in my drive, also on the sidewalk and stairs. By then I was entirely too tired to shovel a 7 foot tall drift, 3 feet wide, and 50 feet long. After all, I still have to be able to go to work the next day. I decided to dig out a spot against the front of the house to put my 2 garbage cans in until I dug out the gangway. The next day it rained and turned everything to ice so I threw cups full of salt up and down the gangway from the windows. The next day I got a citation for leaving my cans out for two days. I dug my back door open from inside and made enough room to put my cans out back. Then I drug the nasty, slushy, salty garbage cans through my house, and put them in back. When I went to the village to explain, I got a 50 dollar fine. I put a lot of money rehabing the house I live in. I do not keep it in disrepair, or trashy looking grounds so I never cared that they do these things. It just bugs me that a 7 foot drift clearly seen over my 6 foot fence after a blizzard, helped me zero. When there's a windy, rainstorm they're quick to run around taking pics over the top of privacy fences, and citing people for things that have gotten blown over. Bottom line... Are they allowed to take pics over top of a "PRIVACY" fence?

Yes. There was a situation on LI recently where a town used satellite images to find people with unregistered pools.

As long as they don't illegally enter your property they can shoot away. On the other hand, I'm not sure what the drift in your yard has to do with anything. If the law says you can't leave your trash cans out except on pickup day, then you violated that law and that's what you were fined for.

Bottom line - yes.

And they are not taking photos for no purpose - you explained why they are being taken.

... I was at work on garbage day when a blizzard hit ... I decided to dig out a spot against the front of the house to put my 2 garbage cans in until ... The next day I got a citation for leaving my cans out for two days. ...

As has already been said, yes they can take the pictures.

But I would closely look at the ordinance to see whether you violated it. If they couldn't see the garbage cans other than by taking a picture over a privacy fence, I have trouble with the suggestion that they were left "out". "Out" should defined as being visible from the street, or something of that nature.

It was garbage day, and I was at work when the blizzard hit

Comments on this post
dono912 does not find this helpful : I already said the cans were out front. This person is ak lawyer? I highly doubt it.

First, may I call your attention to the guidelines for using the comments feature found here:

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/feedback/using-comments-feature-24951.html

We are all volunteers here, freely giving of our time and knowledge to help others. Sometimes we may miss something. That is no justification to give someone a negative rating, especially not an insulting one.

Ok, so you are claiming because of the blizzard you could not clear space to put your cans away. Some municipalities have rules about inclement weather giving more time to comply with the law. Unless your town has such rules then the town was correct, if not compassionate, in applying the law.

... I already said the cans were out front. ...

No. You did not. You said that, to see them, one needed to look over the fence. That suggests that they were behind the fence.

It probably is perfectly clear to you exactly how your home is laid out. But I only have your description by which to visualize the layout. And your description is inadequate, apparently.

In this case, was every house on your street fined ? If no why, where they able to move their cans somehow off the street at least ?

I note that despite Scott's warning OP continues to hand out reddies left and right, unwarranted reddies at that.