Towson University senior Justin Patrylow had just moved into a rental house near campus last month when he invited a few friends over for a barbecue.
They were playing music “a bit louder than we usually do,” Patrylow says. But because it was a Friday afternoon, he figured no one would mind.
He was wrong. Patrylow, a 21–year-old senior from Allentown, N.J., was hit with a $500 fine and the prospect of 20 hours’ community service.
That’s the penalty for violating a new Baltimore County ordinance aimed at curtailing the raucous off-campus parties Towson residents have been complaining about for years.