When a hoarder next door blocked a family’s driveway with trash, their once-ideal house became a living nightmare.
Elena Malone and Josh Ryan purchased a family home with three bedrooms in Sun Valley, California, for $1.2 million in 2021.
However, not long after they moved in, the plot belonging to their 50-year-old neighbor David Ferrera began to fill to the brim with human waste, condoms, vibrators, and more than a hundred abandoned automobiles, scrap metal, chemical waste, and old, unworking appliances.
In addition to being unsightly, the trash is a significant health and safety concern, but authorities have done little to address the problem.
Malone feels that no one individual should have the power to jeopardize the security of a whole community.
Set on half an acre of lush grounds, the house on Wildwood Fire Road was stunning when Malone, her husband, and their two small children moved in. It had fireplaces, exposed beams, and an open kitchen. However, their neighbor Ferrera, whose family says he has mental illness and is a hoarder, has converted his property into an illegal landfill.
His home was once inaccessible due to rubbish, so he resorted to living in his car outside the Malones’ house.
Then, hypodermic needles, human waste, and condoms began piling up on their road and in their front yard.
Malone had to keep the kids off the front lawn since they were nine and eleven years old, respectively.
She said she was once unable to awaken Ferrera and his girlfriend after discovering them unconscious in the vehicle. The family and other neighbors approached local authorities for assistance, but according to the community, they have taken no action.
Mary, Ferrera’s 80-year-old mother, owns the land he lives on. She has made attempts to help out her son and have the property cleaned up, but she feels helpless in the face of the situation.
After failing to clean up the property in 2021, Mary was charged with property code breaches and sentenced to 180 days in prison.
Reportedly in tears, she informed the judge that she had hauled away 21 trucks’ worth of garbage from the location, only to witness her son deposit even more rubbish there.
After only one night inside bars, she was let out.
Currently, the neighbors’ concerns about the possibility of a fire engulfing their homes are growing due to the toxic materials the hoarder stores on the property.
