Tower of trash in Detroit neighborhood has residents upset

Need a gas tank, a sofa, a bed mattress or several cords of firewood?  A six foot high eyesore has neighbors complaining on Mansfield at St. Martins in northwest Detroit.

"I've called the city.  I've called the mayor's office.  They say I'm in the system, but they don't know anything else," said one neighbor.  "I've been calling almost a year.  In a few months it will be a year all that trash has been over there, and every day someone is throwing some more and more over there."

At night, she sees the rat population come out to play.

"What are we to do?  Just continuously watch this?  It's a hazard," said Rev. Michael Turner.

Neighbors said renters moved out a year ago and the lawn was clear at the time, but during the last year there has been mystery dumping, and the pile keeps getting bigger.

"Since that time, they've just been using it as a dumping ground," Turner said. "It's quite a eyesore.  These kind of things bring our community down.  They bring down property values.  It doesn't make sense."

We noticed a $1,000 ticket for blight hanging on the front doorknob.

We tracked the property owner down in Farmington Hills.  He said he doesn't owe the city anything.  When his tenant moved out, the lawn was clean.  He said he can't baby sit the property and watch to make sure that nobody dumps anything.  He said the people who did the dumping are responsible for the cleanup.

We also reached out to the city to find out the next move and have yet to hear back.