Detroiter says she got $500 ticket for trash she didn't dump

No neighborhood should be turned into an illegal dumping ground, but garbage is pilling up in an alley on Detroit's west side.  One resident said what stinks more than the eyesore is being punished when the real offenders are not.

Take a walk with Nicole Coker in her backyard and the alley behind her house on Roselawn near Livernois and you'll find a nasty pile of rubble.

She did not see who left the mess.  However, Coker did get slapped with a pricey ticket by the City of Detroit.

"A $500 fine," she said.  "If you want to dispute it, you can dispute it and go to court for it, but then that's a hassle.  Who wants to take time... to go to court for something you did not do or even pay a $500 fine for something you didn't dump."

Four doors down from Coker's place in the alley along Roselawn there is a bigger illegal dump site.  All of it is just 50 feet away from busy Eight Mile Road.  There are mattresses, bags filled with trash, kids' toys, old televisions, and Coker and her neighbors see rodents.

"We can pull up at night in the backyard, and we'll see them running all over the place because of the trash," she said.

Her neighbor, Calvin Moorer, never actually sees the dumping culprits.

"Didn't see anybody.  Just heard noises, and apparently it was the bags being tossed off of a truck," he said.

"[I] see rats," he added.  "Walk out of the house, go up the alley and there they are."

We tried contacting the city for comment and are waiting to hear back.