This Time Fly Dumpers In Englewood Get Caught With Their Junk By Alderman Ray Lopez
CHICAGO (CBS) -- It looks like any other empty lot, but this one doesn't stay empty long.
Fly dumpers have hit this spot in Englewood repeatedly, but the ones who were here on Friday won't get away with it. The alderman caught them on camera.
"I know what you're doing," 15th Ward Ald. Ray Lopez tells the dumpers on the cell phone video. "Put it all back in the truck."
With a heaping pile of garbage and a big U-Haul full of trash and construction debris, the dumpers planned to fill the vacant lot until Lopez showed up checking out a complaint.
Chicago police were close behind.
Lopez hopes this sends a message: "That this kind of nonsense will not be tolerated in my ward, let alone the city of Chicago."
Empty lots and alleys in West Englewood have been recent hot spots for fly dumping. CBS 2 has reported it more than once. And you're paying for it.
"This would have cost tax payers thousands of dollars to clean up," said Lopez.
In the past year, it has cost the ward almost a quarter of a million dollars to clean up the mess, according to Lopez. Taxpayer dollars that could be used to help the community. The cleanup is a big job in which heavy equipment and a dump truck had to be brought in to haul away the mess.
On Friday night, Chicago police had the U-Haul towed and impounded. One of the men behind this was taken into custody, and police say he was charged. He could also be fined $1,500 -- that's the city's minimum for a first time illegal dumping offense.