Anyone know how to get city officers/cops to leave you alone?
I’ll try to keep this brief,
I have a officer giving me a hard time about having some construction waste and materials in my yard. I bought a house for real cheap and have to remodel the entire thing.
I’ve had the house for 4 months now and have put on a new roof (trusses, OSB and shingles) which included raising the roof 6 feet, I replaced the 2nd story floor and have the upstairs electrical and insulation done. I’ve invested $13,100 into materials in a matter of 4 months.
When I purchased the house it came free with a yard full of junk. 2 weeks after I bought it a officer came by and mentioned I’d have to clean up the back yard. I explained I just bought the house, planned on cleaning it up. I went further to explain I appreciate his concern and willingness to get on people to clean up there yards. The better the neighbor hood looks the more I can sell the house for when it is done. I tried to push the idea that we were on the same side.
So a month, 6 dumpsters and 3 flat beds later, he comes buy again. I had just finished cleaning all the garbage out of the yard that was left behind. I had tore out the 2nd floor and had all the plaster in the dumpsters and the wood stacked ready to load on a flat bed to be hauled away. He wrote me a citation and said I had 40 days to get the yard taken care of. I was upset, but I was very polite and explained to him none of the wood in the yard has been there for even 10 days. It was only there until I was done gutting the house and would be hauled away. I got the citation anyway, and simply said “no problem, it is something I’m taking care of anyway”.
He comes by yesterday, I had the dumpster emptied the same morning and was just returning with some lumber for a knee wall upstairs. It was about noon and he approached me, I smiled and said “yard look better?” He replied “not really, what are all these shingles?” I explained to him I just got done installing 2 sky lights last night at about 10 P.M. and had to wait for the dumpster to be emptied so I could pick them all up. I took him inside showed him the sky lights and new windows I put in Sunday night. He then looked out the back and asked about some bricks. The bricks were from the chimney on the roof and it had to be taken down, and I roofed over the hole Sunday while I was working on the sky lights.
I told him I could take care of it right away, so I asked him if he could come by later in the after noon and inspect it again. I am doing all this in hopes it would work like a fix-a-ticket. Your yard is messy, you get a ticket, you clean it and it is ripped up.
He never shows back up.
I call 911 tonight after thinking about it and starting to get upset. I ask the operator to send this guy over so I don’t have to appear in court and miss a day of work. He gets to the house, I ask him if the yard is in compliance. He does not even answer and ask me “do you want to forget about the ticket? Because if it gets messy again it would be a misdemeanor offence” I looked at him like “wtf” and he says “Or we could push back the court date to give you more time” Keep in mind at this time my yard is spotless, raked and mowed. I told him “take care of the ticket, I don’t have time to worry about court dates I would rather worry about the house”.
Wtf can I do with this guy? I have a feeling his boss would side with him, I’m only 24 and I just feel they don’t like me. I don’t know if they are jealous because I own 4 houses in there city at my age or what!
