On Saturday residents reported that a man in Skopje Sever had cut down a street lighting post and begun illegally building a canopy on public land. Darko Kostovski, mayor of Butel municipality, announced on social media that swift and decisive action would follow - demolition of the illegal structure and criminal charges against the offender.

On Monday inspectors went out to the site. They found cleared ground and a new lighting post. The illegal structure was gone. The man had dismantled it himself.

"Whether reason prevailed or fear of facing the law, it makes no difference at all. What matters is that there is no usurpation and no damage to state property," Kostovski said, adding that the law applies to everyone and that local sheriffs would not be allowed to peddle force that is, at bottom, a gross breach of the law.

And there will be no fine either

This is where the story gets its real point. Butel municipality clarified that the mayor's Saturday post was only an announcement of inspection and sanctions. Because Saturday is a non-working day, inspection services could not come out immediately - that was scheduled for the first following working day. In the meantime, the man restored everything to its original state. When the inspectors arrived, there were no grounds for a sanction.

So: somebody cut down a public lamp post, seized state property, started building without a permit - and walked out of the whole affair without a single denar in fines, simply because he managed to tidy up before office hours.

A win, or a hole

This story can be read two ways, and both are correct.

The first: the public post worked. The pressure did its job, the usurpation lasted less than 48 hours, the post is back up, the space is clear. A result on the ground, fast and without a trial.

The second is more interesting. If a municipal inspection service only responds during working hours Monday to Friday, then everyone building illegally knows the timetable. Illegal builds in this country have gone up at weekends, on holidays and overnight for decades - not because of the builders' working habits, but because of the inspectors' working hours. That is no secret to anyone in construction.

What this case shows is not that the system works, but that the announcement works. When a mayor wrote a post, the man got scared. When the inspector arrived on Monday - there was nothing left to see.

The question for Butel and for every other municipality is not whether the post is worth it. Clearly it is. The question is why we have to lean on it, instead of on an inspectorate that can turn up on a Saturday afternoon when the building is actually happening.