Title: Man Faces Five Years in Jail for Returning Bottles Category: News & Opinion Tags: bottle deposit, bottle return, Michigan bottles Teaser: Returning out-of-state empties to Michigan could land you in jail. Article: Similar to a Seinfeld episode, a Michigan man attempts to bring in a truckload of empty bottles from out of state to cash in on the refund, which is double in Michigan. Unlike Seinfeld, the man charged could face up to five years in prison. *Photo #1* Caption: Man charged for bringing out of state return bottles into Michigan (Photo courtesy: REX ROOF / CREATIVE COMMONS) Thousands of empties discovered Last April a Michigan trooper pulled over a man driving a rented truck— in Tyrone Township, Michigan, about 40 miles north-west of Detroit — for …show more content…
“It was packed.” The Prosecutor, William J Vailliencourt for Livingston County said his office “has never had a case like this.” A scheme right out of Seinfeld There may never have been a case like this, but we have seen a scheme like this, plotted on an episode of Seinfeld, titled “The Bottle Deposit.” In that episode, Kramer and Newman hatched a scheme to return a truckload of empty bottles to Michigan where they could collect a 10-cent refund, versus collecting only 5-cents per bottle from their home state. The scheme to return bottles purchased outside of Michigan to capitalize on the refund may seem feasible, but in reality it’s illegal under the state’s bottle deposit law. And Brian Everidge, the man who is accused of attempting to “return” more than 10,000 bottles from collected from other states, may face up to five years in prison for one felony count of beverage return of non-refundable bottles reports the Guardian. -Katherine