A South Florida woman prides herself on keeping her home tidy. So when someone dumped an entire trailer full of trash on her yard, she called Help Me Howard with Brandon Beyer.
Karen Shaw has lived in her Fort Lauderdale home for 25 years. She helped build it with Habitat for Humanity.
Karen Shaw: “It’s wonderful; you do so many hours on other people homes, then you do hours on your home.”
It’s part of the reason she takes so much pride in her home and she says her neighbors do too.
Karen Shaw: “If you have a yard that’s not up to par, the house isn’t going to look up to par.”
But it’s hard to keep your yard up to par when someone comes along and dumps an entire trailer full of trash right onto it.
Karen Shaw: “It looked like they had did some renovation and it was like shelves, boxes, a bunch of wood.”
A neighbor’s security camera captured it all. The truck does a drive-by.
Karen Shaw: “It looks like he passed by just to see was anybody out looking.”
Then he’s back. And in about two minutes, he dumps his entire trailer full of trash on Karen’s yard.
Karen Shaw: “You can see the truck just coming up and all of the trash falls, he gets back in his truck and he pulls over and that’s when everything just pours out.”
Karen couldn’t believe it.
Karen Shaw: “I got some choice words but I’m going to leave that for later.”
And as if this wasn’t bad enough, the city sent Karen a violation notice telling her if this trash wasn’t picked up, she’d be fined. The video took care of the ticket.
Karen Shaw: “It showed them that I was not responsible for that. Someone had illegally thrown that there.”
But she still had a pile of trash in her yard.
Brandon Beyer: “Do you think it should be your mess to clean up?”
Karen Shaw: “No, not at all ’cause I didn’t dump it.”
And that’s when she thought of us.
Karen Shaw: “I called Help Me Howard because Howard can get the job done.”
Howard, what a mess. If someone dumps trash on your yard, are you responsible for hauling it away?
Howard Finkelstein: “In most cases, yes, you are responsible for maintaining your property. Karen is the victim of an illegal dumping and, unfortunately, it’s the property owner’s responsibility to remove the trash. The city can help if they choose, but they’re not required to. If the perpetrator is caught and prosecuted, restitution can be part of the punishment.”
We emailed the city and though they don’t have to, they told us the pile was scheduled to be picked up, because there was so much trash, the job required its own truck.
The very next day, it was gone.
Karen Shaw: “After all that and all the calls and all the running around and calling this person and calling that person, they finally came out the exact next day and came to pick it up.”
Karen’s got her yard back. With some brand new “No dumping” signs letting people know they’re on camera and that violators will be prosecuted.
The city says they monitor for illegal dumping and they encourage residents to help them out by reporting it if they see it.
Got a problem and need a hand? Here’s how to find us below. It’s Help Me Howard, I’m Brandon Beyer, 7News.
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD
Email: helpmehoward@wsvn.com
Reporter: Brandon Beyer at bbeyer@wsvn.com
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