OREM — The half-empty Coca-Cola cans were driving Terry Harris nuts.
Drinking a Coke was one thing, not finishing it another.
So two years ago Harris found a used vending machine, stocked it with soda and told his kids the drinks were no longer on the house.
For 50 cents, they could buy the pop themselves.
"When it's free, kids have a tendency to waste it," Harris said. "When they have to pay for it, they drink it all."
Soon, folks from all over the neighborhood were sitting on Harris' porch, drinking Coke and smoking cigarettes.
Harris pulled in about $300 a year.
Harris turned off his soda machine a year ago, but another, run by the Dillingham family, at 15 E. 400 North, still runs.
"I've had people ask me how I stand it," said Carol Dean, who lives across the street. "Stand what? It's not hurting me."
Others are bothered, and a recent spate of complaints has prompted Orem officials to remind homeowners that while home occupation businesses are legal, an outside presence is not.
"We have garage sales that literally go on year-round," said Orem City Planner Stanford Sainsbury.
"People in a residential neighborhood shouldn't feel like they're living next door to a store."
On Tuesday, the Orem City Council passed an ordinance limiting garage sales to twice a year per property owner, for no more than three consecutive days.
"We don't want our residential neighborhoods to look like commercial zones," Sainsbury said.
At times, the Dillingham yard looks like a commercial zone. Judy Dillingham says the vending machine brings in $400 to $600 a month during the spring and summer, $100 to $200 a month during the fall and winter.
Schoolchildren stop nearly every day to buy soda on their way home from school. Twelve-year-old Norma Altamira, who buys a soda from the front-yard machine, says kids come from all over to buy a can.
Dean has even seen police officers stop to nab a pop.
Until recently, the Dillingham machine sat in the front yard under a pine tree. They strung lights through the tree and set up a park bench beside it.
"It was kind of nice to have a park bench where everybody congregated," Dean said. "I think it's a good idea, there's not enough of that around anymore."
Now that the machine stands closer to the house, business has declined, Dillingham said, but the sodas still need to be restocked every week to two weeks.
That's not too hard for the Dillinghams, since they own their own vending business. They also have set up a soda machine at their parents' house in American Fork.
Sainsbury said the Dillinghams and others who have vending machines in visible spots can continue to operate the service, as long as the machines are brought in the house or into the garage.
E-MAIL: jhyde@desnews.com