John Kerry Fined $50 for Failing to Shovel Snow Outside Home: "Diplomats—They're Just Like Us"

Find out what else a spokesperson for the Secretary of State said

By Corinne Heller Jan 30, 2015 9:57 PMTags
Boston, John Kerrycityofboston.gov/Getty Images

Secretary of State John Kerry did not report for snow-shoveling duty at his Boston home earlier this week. So the city gave him a fine.

A $50 ticket was issued to Kerry after an anonymous person filed on Wednesday a complaint on the city's official Citizens Connect website, along with a photo of an unplowed, snowy walkway adjacent to the side of the U.S. government official's mansion.

Kerry was not even in Massachusetts, at the time it was submitted, or even in the country a day earlier, when a blizzard dumped nearly three feet of snow in Boston and its surrounding areas earlier this week. The mayor had vowed to crack down on people who failed to remove snow and ice from areas in front of their commercial and residential properties, with fines ranging between $50 and $200 per day.

"Diplomats — they're just like us,'' The Boston Herald on Friday quoted a spokesman from his office as saying. "Secretary Kerry was working overseas while the blizzard packed a wallop back home and unfortunately his snow removal company misconstrued yellow hazard tape along the sidewalk—put up to warn of falling snow and ice overhead—as police tape and thought that part of the sidewalk was off limits."

"Once they understood they were allowed to enter the area...the contractors finished the sidewalk late (this) morning," the statement said. "The snow has all been shoveled now, the Secretary will gladly pay the ticket, and let's hope this is the last blizzard of the year."

Earlier this week, Kerry flew to Saudi Arabia to pay his condolences over the recent death of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. He met the monarch, King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Kerry attended the Armed Forces Farewell Tribute event in honor of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel in Virginia.

On Thursday, the day his ticket was issued, Kerry was in Washington D.C., where he met with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House and also attended the White House Forum on Combatting Human Trafficking in Supply Chains and also had meetings with Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom and Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics at the Department of State.

The city's website shows a ticket was issued to his home and that the case has been closed. A total of 210 snow-removal citations were issued on Thursday, The Boston Herald reported.

Kerry returns to Boston on Friday. He is meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs José Antonio Meade in the city.

"Hope they don't mind a little snow," he tweeted on Wednesday, adding, "."