I know I'm an idiot but after leaving the bar last night at the Jersey Shore, I had the urge to pee and honestly couldn't hold it.I went in the corner of a parking lot where no one would be able to see anything but a cop noticed me from across the lot and issued me a citation. I was perfectly coherent and admitted to the officer that I just wasn't able to contain myself. Never the less he still issued me the ticket and said it was a city ordinance violation which I think was technically classified as disorderly conduct, with a fine of $110. I wasn't arrested but handed the ticket and sent on my way. The price doesn't necessarily concern me and I wouldn't mind just paying the ticket but I'm currently applying for jobs that might involve a background check and I'm now having a panic attack about ruining my chances of getting hired. Would this kind of thing show up on a background check or keep me from getting hired? If so should I try and fight this thing, and anybody with legal experience have any suggestions on how to do so?
I wouldn't worry about it. Seems pretty unlikely that a potential employer is going to be able to find out about that.
This happened to me when I was 24 or 25...there is a decent-sized strip of bars by where I live and there is parking and woods in the back. When we were going back to our car, I stopped in the woods to take a piss, got in my friends car, started driving away and when we were stopped at a stop sign, a cop on foot knocked on my window and asked me to get out. I had no idea why, but I did. And he goes 'were you just up there peeing?' and I was like 'are you being serious right now?' and he wrote up a ticket. I think my fine was about $150 but the worst part about it was, that city made me go to court for it AND do a day of community service, I had to call off two days of work (for court, then for community service). Thankfully however, it showed up on my 'record' as littering and not public urination. Either way, it's a minor misdemeanor and would likely not show up on a record check and even if it did, it's so minor that I highly doubt a serious employer would take that into any consideration. I have much worse on my record and have a pretty good job.
Thanks guys the officer mentioned it's basically the same as something like a parking ticket in the eyes of the law but I was concerned that someone from HR would see something like that and instantly give me a pass.
I'm not sure what goes on background checks or how HR departments go about looking into backgrounds so it's always a crap shoot of what will or won't show up on your background check. That said, anything you are ticketed for will always show up on court record documents (at least in my area) and can be searched by anyone in the public for free on court websites. Not that people probably spend their time searching through court records but anything that you're ticketed for can be viewed by anyone should they actually look.
Literally finished, zipped up, turn around to leave the parking lot; and then saw the cop walking towards me.
once I got caught peeing in a diner parking lot (also in nj) and a cop caught me hanging dong. He tossed his handcuffs to himself in a menacing way and asked if ive ever been taking "downtown". Then he told me to beat it.
Got sprung taking one on a tree at night. Got a police check and let off with a warning. Thing was had to tap the piss, so was still busting the entire warning and returned to peeing on the tree when they left
I remember when my brother was a freshman in college he went to Fest in Florida and got caught by a cop doing the same thing. The problem was he was drunk and said our home address rather than his dorm room. It was my job to intercept the letter before my mom found it lol
I mean, I've pee'd in public many times, but never really thought that getting caught was an issue. Maybe I've just done it in discrete enough places to not been seen, but it only takes about 30 seconds... If you can't get away with public urination, how do you get away with anything?
I was really drunk when I got caught and it was also like 2:30 a.m., so I probably wasn't thinking clearly.
I guess that makes sense. If you're sober though, seems like you'd have to be pretty unaware to be seen.
When I was a minor I did something dumb. I didn't go into court over it or anything. I had to take a one day workshop with other troubled youth lol, but I figured since I was a minor and I wasn't like arrested or anything that it wouldn't show up on HR checks as an adult AND IT DOES! Never underestimate the background check lol.