Current & Past Strange Laws
in Los Angeles County

Illegal to drive more than 2,000 sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time. Los Angeles Almanac Image.

Arcadia

• Peacocks have the right of way to cross any street, including driveways.

Alhambra

• You cannot leave your car on the street overnight without the proper permit.

Baldwin Park

• Nobody is allowed to ride a bicycle in a swimming pool.

Downey

• It is illegal to wash your car in the street (passed 1995).

Hollywood (when it was an independent city)

• It is illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood Boulevard at one time.

Long Beach

• Cars are the only item allowed in a garage.
• It is illegal to curse on a mini-golf course.

Vintage car in a garage. Pixabay.com.

City of Los Angeles

• It is illegal for a man to beat his wife with a strap wider than 2 inches without her consent.
• You cannot bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time.
• You may not hunt moths under a streetlight.
• It is illegal to cry on the witness stand.
• Toads may not be licked.
• It is a crime for dogs to mate within 500 yards of a church. Breaking this law is punishable by a fine of $500 and/or six months in prison.
• Zoot suits are prohibited.
• It is illegal to stage a bullfight in your backyard
• It is illegal to blow snuff in another’s face
• It is illegal to bath in someone else’s bathwater
• It is illegal to fly a balloon more than five feet off the ground
• It is illegal to wash your neighbor’s car without permission
• It is illegal to sit on an outdoor restaurant table

Pasadena

• It is illegal for a secretary to be alone in a room with her boss.

Secretary with her boss, Los Angeles, 1934. Photo from the L.A. Times Photo Archive at UCLA Library.

Santa Monica

• You may not play percussion instruments on the beach.