On a to-do list that includes world peace, one chore U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry missed is going to cost him personally _ to the tune of $50.
After this week's blizzard dumped 2 feet of snow on Boston, Kerry failed to have the snow shoveled from a portion of the sidewalk at his red brick mansion in Beacon Hill. That's a finable offense, even if you are fourth in line to succeed the leader of the free world.
Kerry had a pretty good excuse. He was in Saudi Arabia attending the funeral of King Abdullah with President Barack Obama. Spokesman Glen Johnson told Bloomberg News that Kerry would pay the fine.
Boston caught up with its famous scofflaw through a social-media application called "Citizens Connect," which allows residents to take a photo of snow that isn't removed and send it to the public works department.
The offending patch in question is on the side of his house. That portion was missed by the neighborhood association's contractor because police tape had been strung up to keep pedestrians from being hit by snow falling off roofs.
The contractor concluded that the tape must have been up for security reasons and moved on, leaving the snow, Kerry's office said in a statement.
"Once they understood they were allowed to enter the area, the contractors finished the sidewalk late Thursday morning," the statement said.
This isn't the first time Kerry's luxury Boston digs have made news. He lives with his wife, ketchup-heiress Teresa Heinz, in the exclusive Louisburg Square section Beacon Hill, the one-time residence of poet Robert Frost and American revolutionary John Hancock. In the late 1990s, she was ticketed for illegally parking in front of a fire hydrant. The couple later had the hydrant moved around the corner, according to an Associated Press report at the time, upsetting preservationists of the historic neighborhood.
Kerry's house was built in 1899 and is valued at $15.5 million by Zillow Inc.'s real-estate website.
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