Reason.com - Free Minds and Free Markets
Reason logo Reason logo
  • Latest
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Subscribe
    • Crossword
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • All Shows
    • The Reason Roundtable
    • The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie
    • The Soho Forum Debates
    • Just Asking Questions
    • The Best of Reason Magazine
    • Why We Can't Have Nice Things
  • Volokh
  • Newsletters
  • Donate
    • Donate Online
    • Donate Crypto
    • Ways To Give To Reason Foundation
    • Torchbearer Society
    • Planned Giving
  • Subscribe
    • Reason Plus Subscription
    • Print Subscription
    • Gift Subscriptions
    • Subscriber Support

Login Form

Create new account
Forgot password

Coronavirus

Idaho Woman Threatened With Jail Time for Holding 'Nonessential' Yard Sale

The local police department says "a garage sale/yard sale is not an essential business and should not be open for business."

Eric Boehm | 4.21.2020 11:50 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests
dppphoto208563 | Francis Dean/Deanpictures/Newscom
A 2014 yard sale in Lewiston, Idaho. (Francis Dean/Deanpictures/Newscom)

Christa Thompson was trying to clean out her late father-in-law's house when local police in Rathdrum, Idaho, charged her with a misdemeanor offense that carries a fine of up to $1,000 and the possibility of six months in jail.

The crime? Holding a yard sale.

"A garage sale/yard sale is not an essential business and should not be open for business," Rathdrum Police Chief Tomi McLean explained in a post on the department's official Facebook page. "This was a large non-essential yard sale that filled the entire front yard and spilled into the back yard as well."

Peter Thompson, Christa's husband, told the Coeur d'Alene Press that the family was sorting through his father's belongings—including piles of stuff recovered from a storage facility—when the police stopped by the previous weekend to issue a warning.

"They told us we couldn't have a yard sale, that it violated the governor's order. I asked them if we could sort some things out on the lawn, and if it was OK to sell a few things to some people," Thompson told the paper. "They said, 'Sure, as long as there's no signs or advertising or anything like that. So we didn't.'"

That was on April 10. McLean says her officers found a post on Craigslist announcing a yard sale. They returned to the scene of the sale on April 13 to issue a written warning about violating Gov. Brad Little's March 25 order telling all residents to stay home and closing nonessential businesses.

When officers returned again on April 17, McLean's Facebook post says, they found "a large quantity of items were still out in the front yard and sales transactions were occurring while police were present." That's when Thompson was charged with a crime. Under the terms of the governor's order, violations can be punished by $1,000 fines and up to six months in prison.

But the yard sale continued on Monday, according to the Bonner County Daily Bee. Christa Thompson told the newspaper she needed to finish selling her father-in-law's property in order to pay bills and buy groceries for her six kids. With another truckload of stuff from a storage unit just getting delivered the to home on Monday, she speculated that the sale could continue throughout the week, and said she is advising prospective buyers to keep their distance from one another.

The ongoing standoff between the Thompsons and the local police department is a perfect illustration of the limitations of stay-at-home orders meant to combat the spread of COVID-19. Encouraging people to limit their interactions and stay home whenever possible makes sense—is necessary, even—to slow the spread. But it is impossible to stop everything. Bills must be paid, the difficult task of cleaning out a deceased family member's home cannot be postponed indefinitely, and life (to some extent) must go on.

It's also true that you can't have a yard sale without willing buyers. Everyone involved was choosing to violate the governor's order. This should be a signal to policy makers that the status quo cannot be maintained. As I wrote several weeks ago, total shutdowns cannot be expected to last for weeks or months. An equilibrium will be found—either purposefully and orderly by official policy, or haphazardly when people simply can't take it anymore. We are now seeing that, in state capitals around the country and in Christa Thompson's father-in-law's front yard.

As for Thompson's potential legal jeopardy, a Boise-based attorney has already volunteered to defend her. Edward Dindinger told the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a free market think tank, that he doesn't believe the charges against Thompson will stand in court.

"The fact that officers of this department took the time to seek out and arbitrarily cite this individual," Dindinger said, "indicates to me the Rathdrum Police Department has far too much time on its hands and is perhaps itself 'non-essential.'"

Start your day with Reason. Get a daily brief of the most important stories and trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

NEXT: Trump Tweet-Threatens To Close the Borders (Which Would Just Destroy the Economy Even More)

Eric Boehm is a reporter at Reason.

CoronavirusIdahoPolicePolice State
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL
Media Contact & Reprint Requests

Show Comments (125)

Latest

Government Argues It's Too Much To Ask the FBI To Check the Address Before Blowing Up a Home

Billy Binion | 5.9.2025 5:01 PM

The U.K. Trade Deal Screws American Consumers

Eric Boehm | 5.9.2025 4:05 PM

A New Survey Suggests Illicit Opioid Use Is Much More Common Than the Government's Numbers Indicate

Jacob Sullum | 5.9.2025 3:50 PM

Judge Orders Tufts Grad Student Rumeysa Ozturk Be Released on Bail From Immigration Detention

C.J. Ciaramella | 5.9.2025 3:17 PM

Georgia Man Who Spent 6 Weeks in Jail on a Kidnapping Charge Says He Was Helping a Falling Child

Autumn Billings | 5.9.2025 2:05 PM

Recommended

  • About
  • Browse Topics
  • Events
  • Staff
  • Jobs
  • Donate
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Media
  • Shop
  • Amazon
Reason Facebook@reason on XReason InstagramReason TikTokReason YoutubeApple PodcastsReason on FlipboardReason RSS

© 2024 Reason Foundation | Accessibility | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

r

Do you care about free minds and free markets? Sign up to get the biggest stories from Reason in your inbox every afternoon.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

This modal will close in 10

Reason Plus

Special Offer!

  • Full digital edition access
  • No ads
  • Commenting privileges

Just $25 per year

Join Today!