Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 1:30 p.m. EST
Ashtrays – the New Contraband

Getting caught with an unregistered gun can get you busted in New York City - and so can possession of a new form of contraband.

Brooklyn video store owner Marty Arno learned that lesson the hard way - he's facing a whopping $6,000 in fines after two of Mayor Bloomberg's anti-smoking goon squad storm troopers caught him harboring one of these deadly items.

Today's New York Post reveals that city inspectors M. Dundas and S. Holloway gave Arno, owner of Brooklyn Heights Video, a ticket last month charging that they had uncovered not explosives, not guns, not knives, but "One (1) ashtray with cigarette butt, and ashes," which was "seen on the counter of the establishment."

For this criminal offense Arno faces a hefty $2,000 fine plus two other similar fines because the -inspectors discovered he did not have "No Smoking" signs and had not put up a sign displaying his store's official nonsmoking policy.

All of these crimes violate the city's politically correct Smoke-Free Air Act, a brainchild of New York's Mayor Bloomberg.

Said a perplexed Arno: "I'm a tiny video store - it's just me and a girl who comes in part-time," he said. "She knows smoking policy: We don't smoke in the store - it's bad for the videos." He explained to the Post that the illegal ashtray is a case of mistaken identity.

"What happened was that a customer came into the store with a cigarette and rather than make her go all the way back outside, I just let her snuff it out in the ashtray," he told the Post.

"How can they take an inanimate object and make it illegal?" he asked. "During Prohibition, alcohol was illegal, but they didn't make the shot glasses illegal. Does anyone even know that this is the law?"

It is the law, said Health Department spokesman Andrew Tucker, who told the Post that the city outlawed ashtrays so that "there is not an invitation to smoke in the establishment."

The law provides that ashtrays "shall not be used or provided for use" and that "No Smoking" signs must be "conspicuously posted so that they are clearly visible." Moreover, "every employer shall establish and/or update a written smoking policy."

And they're serious about enforcing this law, as Arno is learning. The inspectors now have him in their sights. He told the Post that since receiving his initial summonses, the same inspectors have come around snooping twice. Both times, Arno notes, he was in compliance.

"The guy was crawling under the counter looking for the damn ashtray," Arno said. "I said, 'Do you think I'm such a schmuck that I'd leave it out again?'"