The giving spirit hasn't exactly touched San Francisco's mid-Market beat cops, who handed Larry “Bucket Man” Hunt a $460 ticket a few weeks ago while he was banging a drumset outside the Old Navy on Market and 4th Streets — something he's done for years.
“People are saying it's too much noise,” Hunt says, vowing to sue the SFPD for harassment as soon as he settles the ticket. A 22-year veteran of the Bay Area busking scene, he believes he's been persecuted. “They've got all that noise right across the street,” he says of his perch at Old Navy. On many days, Hunt's drumming is actually upstaged by the cacophony emanating from a Central Subway construction site across the street. He scoffs. “All those jackhammers.”
See Also: Larry the Drummer's scattered backstory.
But Hunt's legal troubles won't end any time soon. At a court date Monday he was ordered to pay $115 by the end of the year — or risk a 90-day jail sentence.
