Stamford man arrested for “leaf rage”

If people only learned about Stamford, CT from what gets picked up on the news wire, they would think that we’re all nuts. First we have a mother threatening to sue the city for lost wages because her 3 year-old model son [got a boo boo on a playground](http://www.momathome.com/viewfromhome/life/okay_now_ive_read_everything.php), and now this [quoted from WNBC news](http://www.wnbc.com/news/3922344/detail.html). It’s also in [USA Today](http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-11-17-leaf-incident_x.htm):

STAMFORD, Conn. — Perhaps it’s just a seasonal affliction, but a North Stamford man has been arrested in what was described as a “leaf rage” incident.

Michael Peters, 67, became angry when city employees told him they would not remove leaves from his property, police said. He was arrested Monday after confronting town workers clearing leaves in his neighborhood.

Operations supervisor Robert Gerbert said Peters was a “raving maniac.”

“He grabbed my jacket and said, ‘You’re not going anywhere,”‘ Gerbert said. “The guy was spitting and swearing — it was the most disgusting scene I’ve ever seen.”

Personally, I would be the first to vote against our tax dollars going to street-side leaf collection. The trucks only come by once for the season and the huge piles of leaves that spill over the curbs into the street makes driving like being on an obstacle course.

Highways Division Supervisor Michael Zarba said he could not recall a similar dispute over leaf pickups in his eight years on the job.

“There have been issues where we’ve had to talk to residents and tried to calm them down, but nothing where we’ve had to call police,” he said. “People get very emotional about leaves.”

Frank Fedeli, supervisor of the Citizens’ Service Center, said Peters called the center after his arrest to complain that his leaves had still not been picked up.