By MORGAN MOBLEY
Click here for updates on this story
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (KCTV) — If you pass by the bridge at 23rd and Manchester Trafficway, you might notice something that doesn’t belong: An entire mobile home, charred and abandoned.
Kansas City has seen its fair share of illegal dumping. In fact, there is an allocated budget for it of about $2 million every year. Investigators say this might be one of the biggest cases of illegal dumping they’ve ever seen, though.
Illegal Dumping Investigator Alan Ashurst believes they are very close to tracking down the owner, which will clear up a lot of questions. He was able to find prescriptions and mail inside of the mobile home with the owner’s name.
The mobile home allegedly moved in five weeks ago and the city was notified about one week ago.
Right now, Ashurst suspects it could have come from a mobile home park over on 40 Highway where the new Jackson County jail is going in.
When it comes to legality of it all, that’s where things get murky. In order for it to be illegal dumping, it needs to have been something that was meant to be disposed of.
“When this was put here, it was in perfect condition,” Ashurst said. “He was living in it and just didn’t have a place to put it. That’s not meant to be disposed of. So, his intent was to hang out until somebody told him to move. This has become trash. I don’t know where I’m going to be able to go with it as far as an illegal dumping case because it wasn’t his intention that it caught fire.”
As far as the cleanup goes, anything underneath a bridge is MoDOT territory. We were told they do know about it and are working on a solution to remove it.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
Discussion about this post