An elderly man in Akron, Ohio, says he thought he was helping when he chipped away loose material around a pothole near his house.
Instead, he's been charged with breaking the law.
An undercover police officer spotted 81-year-old James Stacy in the street with a pickax and a broom last week.
Stacy says he cleared the 3-foot-wide hole because he expected a crew to patch it.
And, he wanted the patch to last longer.
But, the city says clearing away material from the hole created a greater safety hazard until the hole was patched.
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