I found this pretty surprising.

http://news.yahoo.com/let-sleep-georgia-trash-man-gets-30-days-213758415.html

If he keeps his nose clean, sanitation worker Kevin McGill of Sandy Springs, Ga., might just make it through his 30-day sentence (to be served on consecutive weekends) for disturbing wealthy residents by picking up the trash too early in the morning – just in time to celebrate National Garbage Man Day – June 17.

Mr. McGill, a new employee of a company contracted to do sanitation work in Sandy Springs, was cited for picking up trash just after 5 a.m. one morning, according to WSB-TV.

A city ordinance limits trash pickup to between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. in order to allow the wealthy suburbans there to sleep peacefully.

One of the fundamental questions raised by this case is whether an employee or the employer should be punished for a violation of the law. Typically, prosecutors go after the company.  

But Sandy Springs prosecutor Bill Riley told local media that he’s tried citing companies with little result and so has chosen to go after the individual employees instead. “Fines don't seem to work,” Riley said, according to WSB-TV in Atlanta. "The only thing that seems to stop the activity is actually going to jail.”

Mr. Riley sought the maximum punishment of 30 days in jail – and the judge agreed. This is the second sanitation worker he has prosecuted for the same infraction.  

Neither Mr. Riley nor the city spokesperson returned requests for comment.

“This is ridiculous!!!!. I guess the US postal mail carriers need not get ready for jail time too,” wrote John Arwood, founder of National Garbageman Day, second generation garbage man, and CEO of Arwood Waste on his Facebook page.

Kyle Brown also responded via Facebook, “As a garbage man my self I think this is stupid and for the DA to call garbage men a nusence was just wrong how bout we go on strike and then see how he feels about sanitation workers just imagine take one city and stop all garbage collection for 30 days.”

Angela Piccinonna also responded to the Facebook post writing, “This is an atrocity. We own a garbage company in Miami and yes there are absolutely time restrictions, HOWEVER, we, the company, get those exorbitant fines should our company not follow the rules. If a driver is costing the company fines, we address it - the answer is not to JAIL the employee. As Americans, we should all find this unacceptable, whether in the trash industry or not, the government has ZERO right to jail you when you didn't commit a crime. Where is the Washington outrage on this? We have national coverage on other issues, but a man simply doing his job and getting put in jail over a time restriction is ok? I really hope this story goes national.”

While other upscale residential area have noise ordinances aimed at letting people get some shuteye in the pre-dawn hours, even Fairfax County in Va, nationally known for having wealthy, high-profile residents, isn't bringing the trash man to trial for waking the neighborhood.

Robert Scott has been with the Fairfax County, Va., Solid Waste Management Program for 32 years and says in an interview, “Here in Fairfax County we have Senators, Congressmen and Supreme Court justices in some pretty upscale residential areas and they don’t have a problem with us picking up at six a.m.”

Asked if the county would prosecute a sanitation worker for making a pickup prior to posted pickup times and disturbing the residents Mr. Scott says it would be more in line with his county’s practices to hold the company accountable, not the individual driver. “I am shocked by hearing of this story,”  he says. “We would hold the hauler accountable and even then they’d likely get a warning. We wouldn’t go after the driver.”

Director of Customer Service at the Fairfax offices, Josie Raimey says in an interview, “We have a noise ordinance that prevents trucks and other noise prior to 6 a.m., but I’ve never heard of a company not backing their driver. I’m surprised the company employing him didn’t step up to his defense.”

Scott explains that the noise ordinance in Fairfax applies to any delivery truck including FedEx, UPS or trash.

“Man, this is something,” he says. “I’m going to have to get a copy of that story and bring it up with my staff at our next meeting so they can see how far some people are willing to go.”

I hope all garbage men will block all the streets at the courthouse at 12:00 and say.. yeah we all are here to pick up the garbage.. he should come out for lunch any moment now..

Rules are rules and this seemed to be a repeat offender.

I don't like how this author has a clear bias against the people who live there just because they're wealthy.

all the crimes in the world and this is punished with jail time...

...i agree.  they should just stop picking up trash entirely for that neighboorhood.  lets see how long that noise ordinace lasts when their overrun with trash.

They have their rules and something had to be done, but...I'm not sure I'd want to live in a society where garbagemen go to jail for picking up trash too early. >_>

Then I wonder why the fines didn't work and the company still sent their employees to do their work at the wrong hours. Or maybe the employee ignored the orders. Who knows.
I just don't like how the people sueing are instantly brandmarked as evil without further knowledge about what exactly went down. A judge doesn't just sent someone to prison for nothing. And there was indeed a violation of rules. The target or the length of the sentence might be debatable but there was a breach of rules and whoever breached them shouldn't be hailed as an innocent lamb either.

That's way too early. But making it a crime and sentencing someone to jail for doing it is wrong.

Love how this article is worded to make rich people seem like dicks somehow. The rules were clearly no garbage pickup between before 7am or after 7pm. This guy did it 2 hours early.

Is it absolutely ridiculous and an outrage that he is serving 30 days in jail for what's at most a noise complaint, yes!! But did he still break a rule, yes he did. Don't spin this and blame the area's residents because you're jealous of their wealth, blame the prosecutor and judge for giving the max fine possible on a hard working honest guy who made a mistake.

Yeah blame the residents of that area. Do you want a big loud garbage truck cruising by at 5am and waking you up?

How about instead you blame the prosecutor/judge for this ridiculous sentence. At most he should get a citation for a noise complaint, because that's all this really is. 

Couple of points:

1) I sincerely doubt an employee ignored orders and went to work at 5 AM.

2) I believe the correct terminology here isn't "sued," it's "prosecuted."

3) Sadly, I personally know more than one judge who could potentially sentence someone to jail for little. Some of them probably have...

4) Proportionality is a key aspect of justice. If you are arrested and imprisoned for jaywalking (which you known you've done before, you guilty sheep you), you'd rightly be indignant.

What we have here instead is a prosecutor who decided to twist a law intended to protect people from mildly serious threats to the public health and safety and use it to punish a garbageman (rather than the person who ordered the garbageman to work that early) for doing what he'd been told to do by his employer, and all because someone with pull at the city gets cranky when he's awoken before his alarm goes off.