A housewife was fined $1,500 for littering after dropping what she says was her house key near her home.
Her penalty notice, seen by the South China Morning Post, charged her with littering with a key on January 3.
'While I was pulling out my coin purse, I felt that some other thing might have slipped out from my pocket,' Lau Shiu-fun, 55, wrote in a complaint filed with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau, and the Ombudsman. 'Within seconds, I found that a door key of mine was on the floor. As soon as I started to reach down to pick up my key, four male officers of the FEHD rushed in and essentially formed a man-wall, totally blocked my way and forbade me from picking up my key.
'They claimed that I had committed littering! Oh, for God's sake, who would litter with their own home's door key?'
The incident occurred at 4.30pm in Lok Shan Road, less than a block from her home in Ma Tau Wai.
Mrs Lau said she tried to reason with the officers but was warned police would be called if she tried to resist. On being told that, she insisted that they called the police. Instead four more hygiene inspectors showed up.
