The Boat that Nobody Wanted: Local Man Faces Littering Charges

An Inver Grove Heights man who told Dakota County Sheriff's deputies that he left an old boat by the side of the road because he couldn’t figure out any other way to get rid of it is now facing a criminal charge.

Timothy John Arsenal, 48, faces a misdemeanor charge of littering, which carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Under Minnesota statute, a suspect is guilty of littering if he or she “throws, deposits, places or dumps” on any street, highway, public or privately owned land any of the following: snow, ice, glass bottles, glass, nails, tacks, wire, cans, garbage, swill, papers, ashes, cigarette filters, fireworks debris, refuse, dead animal carcasses, offal, trash or rubbish “or any other form of offensive matter.”

According to the criminal complaint against Arsenal, Dakota County sheriff’s deputies were called to an area on 180th Street east of Coates Boulevard in Vermillion Township on Aug. 25 after someone reported an illegal dumping. 

They found a boat in “poor condition,” with no motor and the registration number scraped off, blocking the road, the complaint says.

Despite someone’s attempts to remove it, deputies were able to determine the boat’s registration number and interviewed the registered owner—who was not Arsenal.

A subsequent investigation found that although the title had never been transferred, the boat had been owned by “multiple individuals” for the last five or six years. The most recent owner was Arsenal, the complaint says.

Officers contacted Arsenal, who admitted that he had owned the boat but was having a hard time storing it. So, he said, he scrapped anything of value on the boat.

But he didn’t know of any way to cut up the boat and dispose of it, and he didn’t know what else to do with it, so he dumped it by the side of the road, Arsenal told deputies.