Vermont police say chronic littering culprit caught, fined

FAIRFAX, Vt. (WCAX) – Vermont police have identified the person they say is responsible for a case of chronic littering in Franklin County.

In February, we told you about efforts to clean up scenic areas in Georgia and Fairfax, as state police investigated what they called “ongoing egregious littering incidents.”

Monday, David Peake, 68, of Georgia, was fined $800 for those incidents.

Police say a local group that worked to clean up the trash helped detectives identify the culprit.

“Going through someone’s trash every single day, you get to know a lot about someone, and it’s a lot of things you don’t want to know,” said one local resident involved in the search.

Those cleaning up the site said the littering stopped in a specific area after our original story aired, but they found the same sorts of trash in another area on Green Up Day.

The video evidence from the leader of the local group helping to clean up the sites helped investigators identify the suspect.

The leader says he’s hoping this will dissuade Peake, and anyone else, from dumping trash in the future.