Florida Keys residents want rustic migrant vessels off their properties
FLORIDA KEYS - Some Key Largo homeowners are raising their voices and asking for help. They are frustrated because rustic vessels used by migrants to reach US shores have ended up on their properties.
"Why would I have something like that in the back of my house?" said Lorena Kaufman, where a boatful of migrants landed on Sunday morning.
"About 17 people just dropped everything and ran, through the woods (in my house)," said Kaufman.
She reiterates she is not mad about the migrants arriving on her property or coming to the US. She just wants the vessel removed, days after the landing.
"Do you see how many tanks of gasoline are there? My nine-year-old son is running out all day long, that's dangerous."
Kaufman is not the only homeowner concerned in Key Largo. Her neighbor, Bill Butcher, whose house received a rustic boat that drifted says the problem is not only up to Monroe County.
"The problem originates with federal authorities, Coast Guard or border patrol to keep them from landing."
He not only wants the raft out. He says homeowners' security is in jeopardy.
"When they get here, of course, I don't want them on my beach, they got gasoline."
The local agency getting all the complaints is Florida Fish and Wild Life.
CBS4 witnessed when they responded to a homeowner's complaint and reached out to their public information officer for reaction.
We are awaiting a response. Meanwhile, Lorena waits for something to be done.
"The honest truth is this (vessel) is spilling gas here, everybody knows and I don't see anybody doing anything. And, when you call, they tell you that if you don't like it tow it; pay to get it towed."