Silly String Use Can Lead to $1K Fine During Halloween

Hollywood Halloween revelers beware: those celebrating the haunted holiday with silly string are in danger of being fined.

Thanks to a Los Angeles Municipal Code ordinance, anyone possessing, using or selling Silly String -- the liquid in a can that shoots out as a plastic-like string -- between 12 a.m. Oct 31 and 12 p.m. Nov. 1 can receive up to a $1,000 fine.

"A citation could be issued and the silly string could be confiscated," an LAPD spokesman said.

The ordinance, which was passed in 2004, lists safety and environmental concerns as the reason for preventing people from using silly string on Halloween.

The cans for the product, "may cause pedestrians and police officers on horseback to slip and fall" and may be used as weapons when being thrown, the ordinance says.

Because silly string and silly string cans "are discarded in large quantities on the street" they clog storm drains and travel to the ocean.

Business owners take a financial hit because they have to clean up the area in front of their businesses, according to the LAPD.