TOLEDO, Ohio — Thirty-two years of memories for Loncio Perez, whose neighbors say is a disabled veteran, are now left in rubble. Now, he says the remains are being treated like a dumpster.
"Right now, I can't do nothing," Perez said. "I'm trying to do something and I wake up with a freaking headache and I can't do nothing."
His home and neighbor Christina Stanton's were completely destroyed by a fire on July 23 in north Toledo. Both say they have since seen trash thrown into Perez's yard.
"My neighbors over here in the yellow house, they told me that they've seen people over here," Perez said, adding that he found the trash late Monday morning.
Stanton said she's seen people dump trash at least twice.
"They're dumping it; they're coming up through the alley and backing their trucks up and unloading it," she said.
Perez says the items include gas tanks, bottles and five car tires.
"They are not mine," said Perez. "I haven't even driven in 20 years. What would I want tires for?"
It's a crime in Toledo to knowingly leave trash on private property, according to Section 963.25 of the Toledo Municipal Code, which states "No person or persons shall knowingly dump or cause to be dumped any garbage, refuse, rubbish or waste in an amount in excess of what could be contained within one standard thirty-gallon trash bag or weighing in excess of five pounds upon any public or private property or public or private waters."
Perez says he's starting to clean up this week, which the city of Toledo has told him he needs to pay for. He says will cost him $525 per dumpster, per fill-up needed for the rubble.
"They (Toledo-based HAI Dumpsters, Perez's claimed dumpster service) said it could be about six or seven dumpsters, so that's going to be about like $3,000," he said.
The situation and has left him and Stanton looking for answers.
"I feel bad for him," Stanton said. "The fact that the fire wasn't his fault, it wasn't anybody's fault, we weren't even home, but he shouldn't have to deal with all this."
Perez hopes people stop taking advantage of the situation and leave him to heal.
"Whoever's doing it, man up and take it out of here because it's like hitting a wounded dog," he said. "If a dog's wounded and you kick them, it's going to make it worse. It's what they're doing."