Man Gets Ticket for Running in Central Park Too Early

A man training for a triathlon faces a $1,000 fine after he was ticketed Thursday morning in New York City for running in Central Park too early.

Peter Shankman, who bravely set out in the frigid temperatures at 4:30 a.m. to log a workout before work, was pulled over two miles into his run and cited for exercising in the park too early.

A man was ticketed for running in Central Park too early Thursday morning. (Image source: Screen grab via WPIX-TV)

Central Park is closed during the hours of 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., according to it's website.

[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/petershankman/statuses/438970056681459713"]

"He (the cop) pulls up in a car next to us and he's like 'Hey!'" Shankman recalled to WPIX-TV. "I thought he was just saying hi. And he's like, 'Can you stop running?'"

"He says, 'You know the park is closed.' And I'm like, 'No it's not,'" he continued, motioning that there were others around him at the park.

In the interview with WPIX-TV, Shankman speculated that the ticket may have been given so the officer could meet a monthly quota.

"A ‘hey, buddy, the park doesn’t open until six, you need to run on the sidewalk outside’ from the police officer wouldn’t have sufficed? Apparently not, since he made it clear that his boss was in the car with him, so he had to write me up," he wrote on Facebook to his nearly 150,000 followers.

—

Follow Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) on Twitter

[related]