19-year-old gets a ticket for crossing police tape during salvage fire

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- 19-year-old Hadi Abulughod was fined for checking on his disabled mother when his neighborhood was blocked off from the Auto Salvage fire on Friday, April 24th.
"The smoke was the worst part," said Abulughod.

Abulughod says he saw the smoke from miles away as he left class at MATC-Oak Creek.

"They blocked off by the bridge and I told the officer, 'I need to go!'," said Abulughod.

The neighborhood surrounding the fire was off-limits and Abulughod lives directly across the street with his mother.

"I tried explaining to him that I needed to go home, I need to see my mom, but they wouldn't let me go through regardless what the situation was," said Abulughod.

According to Abulughod, the situation is that his mother has complications from back surgery, can't drive, and needs help walking.

Abulughod was warned against going past the police tape, but he decided to go ahead.

"I kind of went under the lines,"said Abulughod.

After crossing the police tape to check on his mother, an officer wrote him an $88 dollar ticket for failing to obey a traffic officer.

"I got it, I knew I was going to get something but I was more worried about my mom. I had a sigh of relief knowing she was okay," said Abulughod.

Abulughod says he'll contest the ticket but understands how he ended up with it.

On the other side of the street Roz Auto Salvage was back open on Saturday, April 25th.

Milwaukee Fire is still investigating how the fire started.