No Ashtray For You!

A mom-and-pop Brooklyn Heights video store was busted for having an ashtray on the counter. The "One (1) ashtray with cigarette butt, and ashes, was seen on the counter of the establishment," noted in the city's health inspectors' report, is costing Brooklyn Heights Video owner Marty Arno $6,000. Arno says that the cigarette butt and ashtray were there because a woman came in smoking and rather than have her go outside, he allowed her to put it out in the store; plus, the ashtray is a movie artifact from a B-movie film, Rosbud Beach Hotel. The city says ashtrays are "an open invitation" to smoking and that establishments other than bars and restaurants are subject to scrutiny in the Smoke Free Air Act. Gothamist wonder if the presence of incense could argue for the existence of ashtray. At any rate, when inspectors followed up with visits to Brooklyn Height Video, Arno said to them, "Do you think I'm such a schmuck that I'd leave it out again?"