Last Friday, Dave Segal wrote about Joe Buckets, a street drummer who'd been arrested for allegedly violating the city's noise ordinance. A Seattle police report that he was arrested while drumming around 11 p.m. on March 14, a Saturday night, outside Poquitos on Pike and 10th.

Today, police ticketed Buckets (real surname Ayotte) for "sitting/lying," according to the $23 citation he showed me. I ran into him as he was walking away from the East Precinct office this afternoon. He said he'd gotten the ticket after sitting outside the precinct for about an hour playing a xylophone—because he wants his musical equipment back. (The address on the ticket confirms this.)

"They're trying to get me on a noise ordinance right now," he said. "But does that give them the right to take your shit?"

Well, yes, it does, says SPD spokesperson Patrick Michaud. Police will hold onto evidence, whether it's a gun or a drum, until prosecutors make a decision to charge a case.

In the police report for the March 14 incident outside Poquitos, Officer Sandlin Grayson says he warned Buckets about the noise ordinance by giving him a paper copy of it. But as the officer walked away, he said, Buckets "immediately resumed playing drums in a very loud manner."

Here's the relevant legal code:

Seattle Municipal Code 25.08.500: It is unlawful to knowingly cause, make or allow unreasonable noise to emanate from property under ones control, which disturbs another, and to refuse or intentionally fail to cease the unreasonable noise when ordered to do so by a police officer. "Unreasonable noise" includes loud, raucous, frequent, repetitive, or continuous sounds made by: animals; horns or sirens other than emergency equipment, motor vehicles being repaired, tested, etc: musical instruments or sound amplifiers; human voices, amplified, between the hours of 10:00 P.M. & 7:00 A.M.

Michaud said when police arrested Buckets, they released him at the precinct instead of booking into jail. He denied Buckets' charge that police are "fucking with" him.