The Really Long Arm of the Law
It's illegal for New Yorkers to possess fireworks. But it isn't illegal for them to go to Pennsylvania to buy them. So how does the New York Police Department keep the contraband from coming back into the city? Well, they've been staking out Pennsylvania stores and recording the license plate numbers of cars with New York tags. The stakeouts have helped the NYPD seize more than 1,000 cases of fireworks so far this year, up from 150 last year, according to the New York Post. They've also seized at least 30 vehicles used to carry fireworks into New York.