Toilet tantrum triggers ticket

Story Highlights
Dawn Herb admits she used profanity while yelling for help with overflowing toilet
Herb's neighbor heard her through window and called police
Herb could face 90 days in jail, $300 fine for disorderly conduct
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SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Talk about a potty mouth.

A tirade at a toilet got a Pennsylvania woman in trouble.

A Scranton, Pennsylvania, woman who allegedly shouted profanities at her overflowing toilet within earshot of a neighbor was cited for disorderly conduct, authorities said.

Dawn Herb could face up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $300.

"It doesn't make any sense. I was in my house. It's not like I was outside or drunk," Herb told The Times-Tribune of Scranton. "The toilet was overflowing and leaking down into the kitchen and I was yelling [for my daughter] to get the mop."

Herb doesn't recall exactly what she said, but she admitted letting more than a few choice words fly near an open bathroom window Thursday night.

Her next-door neighbor, a city police officer who was off-duty at the time, asked her to keep it down, police said. When she continued, the officer called police.

Mary Catherine Roper, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in Philadelphia, took issue with the citation.

"You can't prosecute somebody for swearing at a cop or a toilet," she said. E-mail to a friend