AMARILLO, TEXAS -- It looks like some Amarillo citizens ignored the city law and not only brought fireworks inside the city limits, but fired them off as well. And that not only led to a large number of citations, it also tied police up all weekend.
Police say higher priority calls were often delayed by the sheer volume of calls regarding fireworks.
Amarillo police responded to hundreds of calls over the 10-day period that fireworks were allowed to be sold, including more than 350 calls on the 4th, according to Corporal Jerry Neufeld with the Amarillo Police Department.
"They were interfering with other calls for service, like domestic abuse, violence, family fights, assaults, burglaries, thefts, things like that...that we're not able to get to as easily because we have such a huge backlog of fireworks complaints."
In fact, dozens of citations were issued, including a car full of fireworks being confiscated when it was discovered at an area park.
"And so somebody had purchased a large amount and were obviously planning on setting these off. There were several people around and no one would claim ownership to the vehicle, so therefore, we took the fireworks and the vehicle until we could identify the owner of that property."
Corporal Neufeld added that the exact number of citations won't be known until the courts have had time to sift through them all.
