Exclusive: Trash Dumped Illegally In Front Of Bronx Elementary School
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - It's a pretty trashy whodunit.
Someone has been illegally dumping bags of garbage in front of a Bronx elementary school, and neighbors tell CBS2 it has been going on for months.
It's been caught on video that CBS2 obtained exclusively. The video shows three men calmly dumping bag after bag out of a van and dropping them right in front of the Fairmont Neighborhood School. The men then get back in the van and drive off, leaving behind a heap of smelly trash just a few feet from an entrance to the school.
The words "Bronx Solutions" can clearly be seen plastered along the van's side, but the other words are hard to make out.
"The smell is not good for the area because you have kids going to school. It's not nice, it's not nice," said parent Ibrahim Dialao.
His 7- and 9-year-old kids go to the school off Bryant Avenue in the Crotona Park East section. He says there's so much garbage piling up, kids now have to step over and around it just to get to class.
"We do worry about the health for the kids," said Dialao.
Not only does it look bad, it stinks.
"Every time I pass over her, it's too much garbage: Furniture, refrigerator. It brings too much ants, cockroaches, rats," said neighbor Juana Checo.
Even a toilet bowl or parts of a toilet bowl left behind, CBS2's Marc Liverman reported. While Liverman was on the scene, the Department of Sanitation showed up. They're starting to clear the trash away but the biggest problem is as soon as they do, more trash shows up.
So who's doing the dumping and what's being done to stop it? Liverman got the runaround from a Department employee who referred him from one office to another. The press office told Liverman they're investigating but so far no one's been caught.
There's some hope for residents, though. The Department of Sanitation says starting Thursday a new law goes into effect allowing the Department to search illegally dumped trash to figure out where it's coming from, and prosecute based on that information. Prior to the law taking effect, they had to catch the dumpers in the act.
That new illegal dumping law also means first time offenders could face an increased fine of up to $4,000, and $9,000 fine for a second offense within 18 months.
