For those of you not from North Dakota or similar cold-weather state, something that has become a popular car accessory over the last couple of years is a remote starter.  It’s basically a key fob similar to what you’d use to unlock the doors, except that it also starts your car.  It’s nice for -30 days so that you can hit the button and, 15 minutes later when you leave for work, your car is toasty and most of the ice/snow on the windshield is melted.

But apparently there is a state law against running your car unattended, and some cop in the tiny ND town of Larimore has been ticketing people left and right for it.  Here’s an article about the officer from the Grand Forks Herald, but it doesn’t mention the car starter thing.  That was mentioned by a caller to Dakota Huseby’s show.

I checked out the Century Code this morning quickly and couldn’t find anything that would prevent North Dakotans from letting their cars warm up.  Anyone else have the scoop on this?  It’s hard to imagine that car starters would be selling in North Dakota like they are if it were really illegal to run your car unattended.  Is this maybe a law we’ve all just decided to ignore?

Update: A commenter below indicates that it is only illegal to run your car if the doors are unlocked, but Dakota has actually found two entries in the Century Code that would seem to make running your car unattended at all illegal.

I still think you’d be hard-pressed to find a cop willing to enforce those laws in -30 weather though.