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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Junk patrol

Attention, citizens of South Greensburg, Pa. The Garage Sale Police will be in your neighborhoods on Wednesday. Please have all your family members lined up in front of your house with their sale permits ready for inspection. Violations will not be tolerated:

He has proposed an ordinance, which he says would prevent “people going to flea markets, buying junk that they collect in these flea markets bringing it home, then putting it into their garage, and then calling it a ‘garage sale.’”

The proposed ordinance, up for adoption next month, would limit each South Greensburg family to two yard sales per year. There’s also a time limit.

“That would be two consecutive days,” Martin says, “and they couldn’t run it all week. And they can’t run it weekly. They can’t run it monthly. Just two separate permits that would limit that. And it’s relatively inexpensive. It’s $5 a permit.”

Just goes to show. Give the officious little functionaries an inch and they'll take a yard. Or a garage. Heaven forbid anybody should "go to flea markets and buy junk" to sell in their garages. Why, that would be commerce! Unregualted commerce! Next thing you know, everybody will want to be selling stuff without an actual store people have to go to. Oh, wait . . .

For those who have forgotten, here is a reminder that even the federal government reserves the right to reach down into your garage sales.

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