The Back Page
Film in the News
Compiled from News Reports Around the World

Window film is a popular item among consumers and, as such, stories about it pop up almost every day in newspapers across the world. The Window Film staff has compiled a few on this page that we found interesting. To submit articles that you see in consumer publications or your own hometown press, please e-mail a link to the story to dvass@glass.com or mail a copy of the article to Attn: Window Film magazine, P.O. Box 569, Garrisonville, VA 22463.

Excuse Me, Sir, Have You Been Tinting?
Road Town, British Virgin Islands—A recent traffic check in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) for illegal window tint resulted in a record traffic jam. The Royal Virgin Islands’ (RVI) Road Traffic Act calls for a visible light transmission rating of less than 30 percent for front sidelites and less than twenty 20 percent for all other windows or glass in the vehicle. The RVI Police Force is warning that there will be a zero tolerance for this offense.

Apparently the traffic check was meant to be far from random. Kenrick Headley, head of the Traffic Department Inspector, told BVI News Online that an advisory was sent to the media earlier in the week, but it was not publicized properly or at all. The news source checked into the situation after angry callers bombarded its newsroom with complaints. Many said they were late for work as a result.

Take Two Tints and Call Me in the Morning
Wilmette, Ill.—Police Officer Landon Girard has great memory. When he pulled over Vogt Ted Barys of Wilmette, he recalled the man’s name from a conversation he had half a year prior.

“An anonymous informant told me in June 2007 that Barys had a [handicap parking] placard he didn’t deserve, plus a fake prescription for his car’s tinted front windows,” Girard told the Chicago Sun Times. Girard said Barys showed him the prescription, which indicated he needed the tinted windows because he had secondary cataracts. Girard also asked him about the alleged placard and Barys handed over a copy. Girard kept it and looked into the case in his spare time.

According to police reports, the man used a real prescription to make a fake prescription for the window tint and a renewal application for the placard bore the signatures of two doctors, which Girard found were fake.Barys faces both misdemeanor and felony charges. 

Tinting Overtime
Bradenton, Fla.—Three Bradenton police officers have been suspended without pay following an attempt to tint windows on three cars.

Bradenton Police Chief Michael Radzilowski had told the officers not to tint the rental cars’ windows, but a Lieutenant told one of the officers to tint the windows himself.

The officer who performed the tint job ended up charging the city overtime for his work and has been suspended as a result, along with two others.

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