Exclusive | Snitches get riches: NYC woman wins $4K for ratting out garbage dumper through city program
New York’s garbage is attracting a new kind of rat.A Staten Island woman treated herself to a mani-pedi and a fresh haircut using a hefty cash prize she won for telling city officials about a stranger who dumped a pile of trash at a public bus stop.The tattler was entitled to half the $8,000 fine the litterbug had to pay as part of a new Sanitation Department initiative that encourages neighborhood spies to nose out curbside contaminators.“It’s disgusting! Who knows what was in those bags? You’re dirtying the community,” the woman, who asked to go by Amy, citing privacy concerns, told The Post.Amy is one of 29 people to have reported the dirty dumpers through the DSNY’s Illegal Dumping Award Program since it launched last November — a reward system that gives snitches half the cash of the fine the litterbugs are slapped with.But she didn’t even know about the big bucks offer when she caught the mystery man in the act early last month.She whipped out her phone and captured the stranger tossing five garbage bags onto the Yang Yang Park triangle on the corner of Decker and Barrett avenues — next to a DSNY public trash bin and in front of the S57 bus stop.Amy didn’t confront the man, who hopped back in his car and peeled from the scene, but she reported him to 311.
She also posted her pic of him to a local Facebook group page, where it garnered intense outrage from neighbors disgusted at the behavior.What Amy didn’t know was how vital her footage was — the litterbug’s license was shown clear as day in the clip.The DSNY tracked down the illegal dumper and slapped them with two painful fines, one for the illegal dumping and one to the owner of the car — totaling $8,000.Amy also didn’t realize she was entitled to half of what the trasher had to fork over.“I was shocked.
They told me I’d get a reward, and I was like, ‘no way,'” Amy said when DSNY told her the good news, saying she at first expected the cash to be a measly $100 and was...