A court-ordered cleanup crew hauled away more than 42,000 pounds of trash from a woman's home last week in the Kaimuki neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Neighbors say they’ve been complaining to city officials about the property -- which was filled with trash, infested with rodents, and smelled of "urine, feces and mold" -- since 2004, according to Hawaii News Now.
The state’s Department of Planning and Permitting initiated cleanup efforts in early July after the Honolulu Fire Department determined the property to be a potential fire hazard.
City officials told KITV4 that the property owner, 73-year-old Laura Matsuzaki, has accumulated nearly $200,000 in fines and citations, but they have been unable to locate her.
Neighbors and city officials believe Matsuzaki no longer lives on the property and, according to news station KHON2, could have mental health issues.
People have used the property as an illegal dumpsite and neighbors say homeless people have set up camp there, KITV 4 reported.
Pacific Junk Removal, the company hired to clear the decrepit home, spent six days clearing the property. The contractors reported that the trash and debris inside the house almost reached the ceiling, according to Hawaii News Now.
“[Trash] had broken down and decomposed so much that it became whole instead of loose like we’re normally used to, so it’s heavy, really heavy stuff,” Ray Peralta, manager of Pacific Junk Removal, told KHON2.
“This is the most incredible hoarding house that I’ve seen,” he added, “and I’ve seen a lot.”
The property has violated building and health codes since 2008, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, though the city said that the owner has kept up with property taxes.
“We’re doing this because the owner is unresponsive, uncooperative and quite honestly we can’t find her,” Art Challacombe, deputy director of the Department of Planning and Permitting, told KITV4.
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