'Whatcha in for, pal?' 'Uh, felony littering'

RALEIGH -- Ever wonder: "What kind of yahoo would junk a washing machine alongside the highway?"

Wake sheriff's deputies think it might be the kind of guy who also tips a dryer off his truck, and then a stove, and another stove and, oh yeah, a freezer.

Wake County authorities say Alexander David Smith, 46, unloaded more than 500 pounds of "white goods" -- that's landfill parlance for kitchen appliances -- alongside two rural roads in the northern part of the county. They hit him Tuesday with a charge of felony littering.

That's not your garden variety rap for chucking a beer can or a Burger King bag out of a car window. Smith could get four to six months in prison, according to North Carolina law.

The Sheriff's Office received a tip just before 4 p.m. Monday about someone dumping appliances, said Phyllis Stephens, a sheriff's spokeswoman. Smith was arrested Tuesday morning after a deputy investigated, Stephens said.

The deputy thinks Smith was traveling in his white Chevrolet pickup Monday on Bold Run Hill Road in Wake Forest. The deputy accused Smith of stopping alongside the road, about a block from where he lives, and pushing two stoves and a clothes dryer from the truck, court records show.

The deputy contends that Smith then drove on to Garffe Sherron Road about a mile away, where he pushed a freezer off the back of his pickup, court records show.

He could have disposed of them, free of charge, at the North Wake Multi-Material Recycling Facility off Durant Road in North Raleigh.

Stephens said she did not know how often people are charged with felony littering.

The charge is just the latest for Smith, court records show. Among his previous convictions are reckless driving, driving while impaired, speeding, driving with a revoked license, not having an operator's license, resisting arrest, possession with intent to sell marijuana, maintaining a dwelling for selling drugs, a felony probation violation and unlawful use of the highways.

According to state law, Smith may be ordered to forfeit his vehicle if he is convicted of littering. The pickup truck he was driving at the time of his arrest had a 30-day tag, court records show.

Smith was in custody at the Wake County jail in lieu of $3,000 bail. Attempts to reach someone at his home Tuesday were unsuccessful. And detention officers were unable to provide information about his attorney.

Both the Sheriff's Department and the state Department of Transportation have set up a litter hot line to catch boorish roadside behavior. The number for the county's litter line is 856-5700.

(News researcher Lamara Williams-Hackett contributed to this report.)