Topeka ? The leader of Kansas’ capital city told an Illinois high-schooler he was chagrined to learn he had violated a city ordinance this month when he tossed a snowball at a tree.

Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten admitted the fastball missed the tree located about 30 feet away. But he said that didn’t make his crime any less serious under the city ordinance he is seeking to overturn after high school senior Kristen Aberle pointed it out.

“After I write to you, I am going to the police station and report myself and throw myself on the mercy of the court,” Bunten said in a letter dated Dec. 27. “After that, I’m going to have an ordinance drawn up to repeal this Dumb Law lest our already crowded prisons are filled up with children who, while making a snowman, got carried away and had a snowball fight.”

Aberle, of Thawville, Ill., wrote to Bunten after the Topeka ordinance was pointed out as a “Dumb Law” in her high school government class.

“I thought somebody was pulling my leg,” the mayor said. “But I checked, and she’s actually right.”

The ordinance banning snowball throwing also makes it illegal to hurl stones or “any other missiles upon or at any vehicle, building, tree or other public or private property, upon or at any other person in any public or private way or place or enclosed or unenclosed ground.”

Under the ordinance, anyone caught throwing a snowball could be fined up to $499 and locked up for 179 days.

Braxton Copley, Topeka’s assistant city attorney, said the code serves a purpose because it addresses assault and battery.