City of Colorado Springs begins cleanup on ‘eyesore’ yard, man behind the mess speaks

Residents living on the east side of Colorado Springs are fed up with one neighbor’s mess. Junk is spilling out of the home, onto the lawn and even out into the street.

Neighbors call it a junkyard, but the man behind the items said it’s his livelihood.

“We shouldn’t have to deal with this,” Neighbor Jim Zuber said.

Zuber has watched the yard take different forms for years, but in July it became too much.

Code enforcement for the City of Colorado Springs did issue a notice of violation a few months back and issued several extensions to get the home into compliance.

About two weeks ago, they said the home on Whittier Dr. became a safety concern, which led to a warrant, six code enforcement crew members and three C.S.P.D. officers at the property Monday to start the cleanup process.

“We found that there were personal items and debris being stored on the sidewalk and in the street which is the right of way in front of the house, and at that point, we said we have to take some proactive measures here,” Mitch Hammes, the City of Colorado Springs Neighborhood Services Manager said.

“They mostly took the good stuff away, so you wouldn’t be able to see nothing but a pile of junk.” Rodney Leacock said.

Leacock is the man who owns up to the mess in the yard.

He said he finds the items and sells them at the flea market.

He told KRDO NewsChannel 13 he’s a five-time felon and said circumstances, like the fact he couldn’t pay for a storage unit that was holding the items, have led to the yard filled with stuff.

“Could you agree that you know, having all of these items out here is a code violation?,” KRDO NewsChannel 13’s Colleen Sikora asked Leacock.

“I could agree that maybe it would be a code violation from somebody who just put this stuff out here to be a jerk,” Leacock said.

Leacock insists his state of affairs doesn’t make it a violation of city code.

But he did apologize to his neighbors.

“I’m sorry they had to deal with it because that’s not what I was trying to do,” Leacock said.

But the apology doesn’t mean much to Zuber.

“If you’re sorry, clean it up,” Zuber said.

The City said this is the first time in two and a half years they’ve had to get a warrant to get a property cleaned up, as most of the time, people voluntarily comply.

Code enforcement said if the yard is not cleaned up enough by Tuesday morning, they’ll be back out there again with a crew and a unit to haul the items away.