This got me a little miffed the other day...
I was in my garage in my apartment, my BBQ pit was about 8 feet out in my driveway, car parked just behind it.
I was sitting there drinking a beer in a chair watching the pit temp and doing your typical BBQ rituals..
anywho, a police cruiser comes driving through the complex, drives past my garage etc etc.. no biggie, Im still just sitting there.
he drives by again, the decides to park, perhaps 100 feet away in front of the building opposite mine.
I still really think nothing of this, I figure maybe he knows someone who lives here or something, crime rate in this are is virtually 0 so Im pretty sure hes not here looking for some hoodlums.
Anyway He gets out of his car and walks over.
"How ya doin today!" He asks
"So far so good, (insert some small talk about the hot weather here)
"You really cant be drinking here"
I was a bit thrown..
"What, what do you mean?"
"you cant consume alcohol in a public place, or in view of the public.."
At this point utter confusion has set in and the meager buzz I was working on has vanished, much to my chagrin.
I stammer.. "This, this is my apartment"
He nods "your visible from public property, so you still in public, if someone wanted to give you a hard time, it could go as far as a PI and a trip to Jail, just wanted to let ya know."
Now, the cop was nice, damn nice for a cop, seemed like a cool guy actually, but after he left, the more I though about it, the more it pissed me off.
The apartment complex, is private property, with signs attesting to that fact..
So im drinking in public? and could potentially get taken to jail for public drunkenness... for sitting in a chair, IN MY GARAGE.. which is private property, in my apartment complex.. which itself is private property.. drinking a cold one.
Im no lawyer, but, that just seems, rather Odd.
