Noise violators get opera option

Next time you’re listening to your car stereo while cruising through Miami Beach, you’d better go easy on the volume. If you don’t, you could be in for an unusual penalty -- listening to an opera. That’s an option in the courtroom of judge Jeffrey Swartz for violators of the city’s strict noise ordinance, which says that if the police can hear your car sound system from 100 feet away, you can be charged.

Swartz gives offenders the option of paying the $500 fine or spending a couple of hours in his chambers listening to an opera on a boombox. More than 100 people have chosen the listening experience since Swartz came up with the idea a year ago after his car windows were rattled by the sound of another vehicle’s stereo.

“It drove me crazy,” the judge told the St. Petersburg Times. “I am still at a loss as to why they need all that bass.”

But what happens if you play an opera too loud?