Did You Know It’s Illegal to Cause Static in One South Dakota City?
At one time or another in our lives, most of us have shuffled our feet across a carpeted floor in the hopes of building up enough static electricity to give somebody next to us a little shock.
But in one South Dakota city, doing that may land you on the wrong side of the law.
Best Life Online has examined The Most Hard-to-Believe Facts about Every State and they found that in Huron generating static electricity is illegal, but only between the hours of 7:00 AM and 11:00 PM.
Check the municipal code of South Dakota's ninth-largest city, in Chapter Nine, which covers 'Public Safety and Morals'. The static ordinance is right there alongside curfews, fireworks, prostitution, and obscene literature:
9.32.010 - Unlawful to cause static
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to operate or cause to be operated in the City of Huron any machine, device, apparatus or instrument of any kind whatsoever causing preventable or avoidable interference with television or radio broadcast receiving apparatus between the hours of seven o'clock a.m. and eleven o'clock p.m. of any day; provided, however, that x-ray pictures, examinations or treatments may be made at any time if the machines or apparatus used therefor are properly equipped to avoid all unnecessary or reasonably preventable interference with television or radio reception and are not negligently operated.
This chapter shall not be held or construed to embrace or cover the regulation of any transmitting, broadcasting or receiving instrument, apparatus or device used or useful in interstate commerce or the operation of which instrument, apparatus, or device is licensed or authorized by or under the provisions of any act of Congress of the United States.
All of that leaves with two options if generating static electricity is big on your to-do list - either plan it for the wee hours of the morning or stay the heck out of Huron!
Consider yourself warned...