This 2-year-old girl was ticketed for littering in Washington, D.C.

When the Washington, D.C., Department of Public Works found a pile of trash illegally dumped in an alley, it sent a littering ticket to the name and address spotted on an envelope among the refuse. But that name, Harper Westover, doesn't belong to whoever dumped the garbage, because Harper is a 2-year-old girl.

When the $75 ticket came in the mail, "I opened up an envelope that listed Harper as having violated D.C.'s littering code,” said Harper's mother, Theresa Westover. "And Harper goes, 'Littering, that's not good.'" Theresa contacted the public works department and was told she'd have to pay the fine unless she could prove Harper is a toddler.

Instead, media attention led the agency to back down without requiring the Westovers to jump through any more hoops. "I apologized to them for the mistake, but we're doing our jobs," said DPW spokesman Andre Lee. "But it shouldn't have gotten this far."

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