When you mess with Robin Troy, the mess may follow you home. Troy was recently convicted of disorderly conduct for mailing garbage to the Cranberry landlord who owns the building across from her North Side home. That earned her a $191 fine and increased her status as an urban folk hero.
The 39-year-old mother of five was in the news in December when she and her Deutschtown neighbors went street to street singing Christmas carols in front of drug dealers' homes. Not everyone appreciated that; some serenading of innocents took place, but the walking concert showed clearly, if not melodiously, that homeowners in this mostly forgotten urban patch on the poorer side of Interstate 279 were not going to stand for criminal behavior anymore.
In between carolings, Troy sent the package, wrapped as pretty as you please, to Brian and Connie Striegel in Cranberry. They own the duplex across from her house. A tenant there had habitually put trash out three days before pickup day. Neighborhood dogs and cats tore the white plastic bags and dragged garbage around, leaving Troy's 66-year-old mother, Ruth Thomas, to clean it up.
Troy says she left a note with the tenant, called Striegel's office and wrote letters that came back unopened. So she decided to box the trash and send it north. She signed it "Santa" because she figured the Streigels wouldn't open a package from her, but added a note saying she'd use any legal means to solve this problem.
"It cost me 10 bucks to mail," Troy said. "It was worth it. It was one of the best things I ever wrapped. I really took my time. It had a big white bow. I wish I could wrap that well for my children."
Because Striegel had moved his office, he hadn't gotten Troy's previous letters or phone calls about this garbage problem, he said. But Mrs. Streigel, with two young children at home herself, called Cranberry police when she opened a Christmas package to find trash that included a used sanitary napkin.
So on March 19, Troy drove up to Evans City with Nancy Schaefer, an aide to North Side Councilwoman Barbara Burns, for a hearing before District Justice Kelly Streib.
"Evans City is beautiful," Troy said. "I didn't see any drug dealers standing on the corner."
She lost, and it wasn't close, but she has decided to appeal her conviction to Butler County Common Pleas Court. Troy understands that in the post-Sept. 11 world, people are edgy about strange packages. But she also feels her community and her mother had been disrespected. She's not alone.
This week, fliers and e-mails went around announcing a "Santa Defense Fund Extravaganza" from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Limbach Center on Tripoli Street. A $5 donation is requested. It's sponsored by "Family, Friends & Neighbors who don't want Robin to rot in jail." People are invited to call 412-255-2135 to RSVP. That's Schaefer's number in Burns' office.
"My God, that woman is just so wonderful," Schaefer said. "She has people down there energized in a way they haven't been in quite some time. We just love her. We'd do anything for her."
People who don't live in the city might not understand her confrontational style, but the frustration with absentee landlords in city neighborhoods is palpable.
Striegel, 40, said he'd cleaned up debris behind the duplex in October after receiving a citation, but he said it wasn't until the Evans City hearing that he learned his tenant was setting trash out early. Troy's tactics, not her message, is the problem here, he said.
"Our point is that she was not using legal means."
Joel Johnston, Troy's attorney, says her Christmas mailing does not meet the statutory definition of disorderly conduct, however. The law demands both an "intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm" and an act that "serves no legitimate purpose."
"I don't doubt that whatever she sent was hazardous or possibly even physically offensive," Johnston said. "The problem is it was not public."
Troy also had a legitimate purpose.
It would have been far better for all concerned if the message had gotten to Striegel sooner and in some other way, because he impressed me on the phone as a reasonable man. But this message seems to have worked. Striegel has brought an additional trash can to the duplex and the tenant is setting the trash out on the right day. A 66-year-old woman isn't chasing garbage down the street anymore.
Brian O'Neill's e-mail address is boneill@post-gazette.com.
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