Retired teacher sues PA borough after he was convicted for putting 'for sale' sign in his truck window
Will Cramer is suing the borough of Nazareth, Pennsylvania after he was convicted in a magistrate district court for putting a for-sale sign in his truck window.
A recently retired schoolteacher is suing his Pennsylvania borough over a local ordinance after he was found guilty of putting a "for sale" sign on his legally parked car.
"We put you in office as judges and state representatives to protect our rights," Will Cramer told Fox News Digital. "And when we see things like giving people tickets for putting a for-sale sign in their car – violating our First Amendment right – it's sad."
He teamed up with the Institute for Justice, filing a lawsuit on April 9 seeking a permanent injunction prohibiting his borough of Nazareth from enforcing the ordinance "against a traditional, low-cost, and effective form of personal commercial speech."
"I really can't think of a good reason why Nazareth has this policy in place," he said. "I'm not quite sure why they would be so concerned about a car with the sign in the window."
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Will Cramer received a ticket and a criminal charge for putting a for-sale sign in the window of his 1987 Chevy truck. (Institute for Justice/Will Cramer)
Cramer lived in Nazareth, a small borough in Northampton County, Penn., for over 40 years and spent the last 20 years teaching high school geometry and biology. At the start of the school year, he decided to retire in December 2023 and to go teach English in the Philippines for a year.
In October, Cramer planned to sell his 1987 Chevrolet truck as he prepared for his trip.
"I was retiring, and I was finally going to move to another country, so there was urgency to sell my truck," Cramer said. "I wanted to sell some of my items and not take them with me. I didn't want to store them."
But after failing to find any prospective buyers using online posts, Cramer decided to go old-school and put a "for sale" sign inside the window of the truck, which he parked on the street outside his house. He was unaware of Nazareth’s local ordinance that criminalizes having for-sale signs on vehicles that are otherwise parked legally on public streets.
A few days after placing the sign, he discovered a citation on his truck.
"When I pulled the ticket out from underneath the windshield wiper blade and I looked at it, I was actually receiving a ticket for putting a ‘for sale’ sign and then advertising my car for sale," Cramer said. "I wasn't angry, I wasn't mad, I was just trying to take it in."
"Like, is this for real? Am I getting a ticket for putting a for-sale sign on my truck?" he added.
Cramer immediately removed the sign and began parking the truck on his lawn, since his house doesn't have a driveway. He luckily was able to sell the old Chevy to someone who had seen the sign before its removal and contacted him. In a rush to finish making arrangements for his January departure, Cramer originally chose not to fight the ticket and sent in a check for the amount owed.
Will Cramer retired after 20 years teaching high school biology and geometry and moved to the Philippines for a year to teach English. (Institute for Justice/Will Cramer)
"I just paid it, I wanted to get it over with," he said. "And then I went back home to try to finish the rest of the things that I had to do to complete before I could leave."
A little over a week later, Cramer noticed the check was returned along with a letter saying his payment was late and he owed additional late fees.
"At this point I got kind of angry because I thought it was bad enough that they violated my freedom of speech," he said. "Now they want more money because they didn't get the ticket exactly on the date that they needed it."
The retired teacher began researching criminal cases involving First Amendment rights and reaching out to individuals involved in cases similar to his. He pled not guilty to the citation and represented himself in magistrate's court, but ultimately was convicted and required to pay $123.75 in fines and court costs.
Cramer eventually pled guilty to the citation, but is now suing the borough of Nazareth for violating residents' Fist Amendment with its local ordinance. (Institute for Justice/Will Cramer )
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Cramer did not appeal that decision, but wants to sell another car of his, a 2009 Buick, when he returns to Nazareth from the Philippines next January.
The borough of Nazareth did not respond to a request for comment.
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