Now, we are all about Texas y’all, but we can admit there are some strange things that occur here. Check out our list of unusual laws still legal throughout Texas.
1. Cut Your Losses Now
It is illegal to carry wire cutters in your pocket in Austin. This law dates back to when there was a controversy between landowners who preferred open ranges and those who wanted to keep their land closed off with barbed wire. Some in favor of open ranges went around cutting the barbed wire. It was difficult to determine who the criminal was, so by creating a law prohibiting wire cutters from being carried, this discretion was easily avoided and still holds true today!
2. No Dusting Buildings
In Clarendon, Texas “it is illegal to dust any public building with a feather duster”. Why? We’re not sure and we’re definitely curious as to why it specifies a FEATHER duster. So a wash rag is ok?
3. No Dumpster Eating
Did you know that you can totally go to jail if you eat out of your neighbor’s garbage without their permission? Gross!
4. You’re Mine Now
Forget the wedding – In Texas you can be considered legally married by publicly announcing a person as your wife / husband by saying it 3 times. Beetlejuice would be proud. There’s also a proxy marriage law that doesn’t require either to groom or bride to be present during the wedding ceremony.
5. Stinky Feet
If you want to walk around barefoot, you will first need to get a special $5 permit.
6. Get Your Hands Off My Cow
Get your hands off those utters if that cow is not yours! There was a time in Texas, you cannot milk a stranger’s cow, no matter how much you need milk in your coffee. This law was repealed in 1974, but it’s still considered a faux pas.
7. Pardon Our Spit
And in good ol’ El Paso, there better be spittoons in all churches, halls of assembly, hotels, banks, stores, train depots and saloons otherwise they are in violation of the law. “Churches, hotels, halls of assembly, stores, markets, banking rooms, railroad depots and saloons are required to provide spittoons ‘of a kind and number to efficiently contain expectorations into them.'”
8. No Cheese For You on Sundays
Visitors to Houston should perhaps be aware that “It is illegal to sell Limburger cheese on Sunday.”
9. Heads up
Apparently, there is an anti-crime law in Texas that states that criminals who intend on committing a crime must give their victims oral or written 24-hours advance notice. Not just that, but they must also include the nature of the crime. Sure, good luck with that.
10. Look Out
Forget selling your eyes – it is totally illegal to do so in Texas.
11. Beer Recipe
The entire Encyclopedia Britannica is banned in Texas because it contains a formula for making beer at home.
12. No Drinking Sipping and Standing
In LeFors, Texas, don’t even think about taking three sips of beer at a time while standing. That there, Sir, is illegal!
13. Hotels and Buffalo
Hold on to your hat! In Texas, you cannot shoot a buffalo from the second story of a hotel.
14. Don’t Show Your Stockings
In Dennison and Bristol, Texas, if a person adjusts or fusses with their stockings it could lead to a sentence of up to a year in the state penitentiary.
Gracen says:
Wowza! I had no idea about these laws, I’m glad I do now!
Travis says:
I’ve been in Texas my WHOLE life and I have heard of many of these but let’s be honest alot of them are just plain crazy….lol….😂🤣😂