ORLANDO, Fla. — The city of Orlando is using annoying robotic phone calls to clean up the streets.
The robo-call goes to dozens of people from Orlando Code Enforcement after their numbers were listed on signs illegally set out along the city streets.
"It's been pretty effective," Mike Rhodes with Orlando Code Enforcement said.
The program has been in place for about a year and in that time 160,000 calls have been made to about 80 people and of those, 50 people have come into the code enforcement office to receive their citations and get their numbers off the list.
Code enforcement says the service calls violators over and over again all day long.
Eyewitness News reporter Myrt Price had the city add him to the robo call list and since then the phone has been ringing off the hook – 13 calls over the course of 90 minutes.
Abner Charles is the owner of a tax company who pleaded guilty in March to numerous code violations after putting out thousands of his tax signs.
After that case, code enforcement decided to start the robo calls.
Code enforcement says their message is clear.
"If you're breaking the law, we'll come find you," Rhodes said.
Or they'll call and call until you can't take anymore and stop.
The city pays 6 cents per call for the service and instead of having their crews drive all over town trying to track down violators, it brings code breakers to them.