[HISTORY: Adopted by the North Hempstead Town Board 4-11-1967. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Junk dealers — See Ch. 31.
Littering — See Ch. 34.
Tow trucks — See Ch. 55.
It is hereby found by the Town Board of the Town of North Hempstead that the leaving, abandonment and/or discarding of personal property in public places within the Town is adverse to the public welfare of the inhabitants of the Town and injurious to the personal and property rights of such inhabitants.
For the purpose of this ordinance, the terms used herein are defined as follows:
ABANDON
Leaving, discarding, dumping, throwing or placing of personal property in public places.
MOTOR VEHICLE
[Added 6-12-1984 by L.L. No. 5-1984]
Every vehicle operated or driven upon a public highway which is propelled by any power other than muscular power, except:
A. 
Electrically driven invalid chairs being operated or driven by an invalid.
B. 
Vehicles which run only upon rails or tracks.
C. 
Snowmobiles.
PERSON
A natural person, firm, corporation, partnership, association or agent or representative thereof.
PERSONAL PROPERTY
Any article of personal property, including vehicles or parts thereof, wagons, shopping baskets, carts, trailers, boxes, barrels, cartons, bales or other movable objects of any description whatsoever.
POSSESSION
Ownership, use, physical custody or control of personal property notwithstanding the duration of the physical use, custody or control.
PUBLIC PLACE
Any street, road, avenue, right-of-way, thoroughfare, off-street parking area, parking field, commercial parking lot, municipal parking facility, park, parking space or sidewalk and all other spaces or places available to or used by the general public.
TOWN
Unincorporated areas of the Town of North Hempstead outside village boundary lines.
It shall be unlawful for any person to abandon, discard, leave or place any article or articles of personal property in such person's possession in or on a public place within the Town of North Hempstead or to suffer or permit the foregoing in or on a public place within the Town of North Hempstead.
The Superintendent of Highways shall remove or cause to be removed any such property found upon any public place within the Town and shall take or cause the same to be taken to a facility within the Town for redemption and/or disposition as hereinafter provided.
A. 
Whenever the Superintendent of Highways removes or causes to be removed any articles of personal property containing identification of ownership or right to possession, notice of such removal shall be sent to such person by ordinary mail advising of such removal, the facility to which it was removed and the amount necessary to redeem such article.
B. 
Any article of personal property removed from public places within the Town may be redeemed by the owner thereof at any time prior to disposal by the Town by tendering to the Town Clerk of the Town, during regular business hours at his office, the sum of $10, plus the sum of $2 for each day or part thereof that the property is held by the Town, together with an advertising charge of $3 if the property was advertised for sale.
[Amended 7-22-1980 by L.L. No. 8-1980]
C. 
The Town Clerk shall require satisfactory proof of ownership or lawful right to possession of the property sought prior to release. Any return of property by the Town Clerk to a person claiming the same pursuant to this ordinance shall be an absolute defense to the Town against any other person claiming same.
A. 
The Town Clerk may dispose of all articles of personal property held by the Town for such a period in excess of 14 days at a public auction held pursuant to notice.
B. 
Public notice of an auction shall be given at least five days prior thereto by the Town Clerk and shall contain the time and place of the auction together with a brief description of the articles to be offered for sale. The notice required by this subsection shall be posted on the Town's website, the Town Clerk bulletin board and published in a newspaper with Town-wide circulation designated by the Town Board for publishing notices. Nothing herein shall prohibit the Town Clerk from conducting an auction, over a period of one or more days, via the Internet. In the event that the Town Clerk holds an auction via the internet, the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the online auction website shall be deemed to be the place of the auction.
[Amended 4-17-2018 by L.L. No. 3-2018]
C. 
In the event the property or part thereof remains unsold at the public auction, the Town Clerk may reoffer the same for sale at another public auction or may sell or otherwise dispose of such unsold articles in any manner permitted by law. Any such sale or other disposition shall be without liability on the part of the Town to the owner of such property or other person having an interest therein.
D. 
Regarding the disposal of abandoned motor vehicles, the Superintendent of Highways may convert in any calendar year up to 1% of its unclaimed vehicles that are individually worth more than $750 or two such vehicles, whichever is greater, to its own use.
[Added 6-12-1984 by L.L. No. 5-1984; amended 9-11-1984 by L.L. No. 11-1984]
[Added 9-4-2007 by L.L. No. 8-2007[1]]
If a shopping basket is removed by the Superintendent of Highways from any public place within the Town, as provided for in § 40A-4 hereof, it may be redeemed only in accordance with the following:
A. 
If the shopping basket displays the name and address of the owner, the Superintendent of Highways shall send notice of such removal to such owner by ordinary mail advising of such removal, the facility to which it was removed and the amount necessary to redeem such shopping basket.
B. 
Any such shopping basket removed from public places within the Town may be redeemed by the owner thereof within 14 business days of the date of mailing of said notice by payment to the Town Clerk, during regular business hours of said office, of the sum of $100.
C. 
The Town Clerk shall require satisfactory proof of ownership or lawful right to possession of the shopping basket prior to release. Any return of a shopping basket by the Town Clerk to a person claiming same pursuant to this section shall be an absolute defense to the Town against any other person claiming same.
D. 
If the shopping basket is not redeemed within said 14 days, or if it does not display the name and address of the owner, it shall be disposed of pursuant to the provisions of § 40A-6 of this chapter.
[1]
Editor's Note: This local law also renumbered former §§ 40A-7 and 40A-8 as §§ 40A-8 and 40A-9, respectively.
In the event that any sentence, paragraph, clause or portion of the within ordinance is declared invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, such determination shall have no effect on the remainder of the ordinance.
This ordinance shall take effect immediately.