If you’ve been a North Carolina resident for any considerable amount of time, it probably comes as no surprise that our state has some eyebrow-raising laws.
So, we decided to do a little digging into some of the interesting components of the North Carolina General Statutes to see what we could find.
Here are some of the laws we found most intriguing:
○ Happy Hour for food is pretty common in NC, but have you ever noticed that there aren’t any drink Happy Hours? That’s because ABC Rule 2S.0232 (b) states, “an on‐premise permittee or his agent shall not give away a drink or sell the drink for any period of time less than one full business day.”
○ Don’t go borrowing your neighbor’s dog. According to § 14-82, it is illegal to take your neighbor’s dog, mule, or horse for temporary purposes. We’re pretty sure if you have permission from the owner to take their dog for a walk or even a pup cup, you’d be okay. Just don’t borrow a dog in secret.
○ Driving on the sidewalk is unlawful in North Carolina. This one seems pretty intuitive, but it looks like enough people did it that we needed a law that said it wasn’t the best idea. There is of course an exception for driving over a sidewalk when entering a driveway.
○ It is illegal to serve alcohol at a bingo game according to § 14-293. But that’s not the only bingo law in NC. There are actually 14 statutes about the game. So be sure to check out all of the bingo laws B-4 you play in North Carolina.
And while it’s a little unclear where these laws are written or if they are still law, we thought they were still worth mentioning.
○ It’s been said that in North Carolina, it is unlawful to plow farmland using elephants. Now we’re not sure where you’d even get an elephant for this task, but rumor has it that this law started because of P. T. Barnum + his traveling circus, when the elephants would destroy farmland while carrying circus banners.
○ There are also reports that it is (or once was) illegal to sing off key in North Carolina. So if you want to sing in public, you’d better bring your A game.
