TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. — We’ve all heard the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Some Tarpon Springs residents are now speaking out, saying their neighbor has taken that concept too far by piling up hurricane-damaged appliances and building materials in his mother’s yard.
“Everyone complains about it, and everyone is completely helpless to effectuate any sort of change,” said Deniece Ramirez, who lives next door to the property.
The home has been involved in a years-long code enforcement case, but the debris has only increased after Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
“It just continues to get worse every day”
“There are these air conditioners; there are six, seven appliances,” Ramirez said, pointing out the junk in the front yard, side yard, and driveway.
Ramirez said what looks like an appliance graveyard sprang up in the weeks following the back-to-back hurricanes.
“They're full of salt water, and they can’t really be repaired. He's certain he’s going to make something out of them, but he doesn’t,” she said.
Steve Kaufman, who describes himself as a contractor even though he doesn’t have a license, is the man who has been dumping on the property.
“According to neighbors, this property has been looking like this for over five years, and it just continues to get worse every day,” a Tarpon Springs Code Enforcement Officer testified at a code enforcement board hearing in June of 2023.
The Code Enforcement Officer continued, “The entire front yard, side yard, and driveway were filled with items. There are multiple piles and pieces of large wooden posts, beams, railroad ties, and plywood. A coach, a loveseat, mattresses on a trailer."
“He just comes and scavenges on trash days and just dumps it in her yard,” Ramirez said.
“I had to hang onto it for customers”
The I-Team was checking out the home when Kaufman arrived with wood beams and an old tire strapped on top of his minivan. We asked him about the appliances.
“I had to hang on to it for customers temporarily,” he said.
He told us that he and a friend are in the process of repairing the appliances, which are stored in the yard. Tarpon Springs Police recently took the doors off the refrigerators stored in the driveway and yard.
“I called the city and said could you at least do something so it’s a little safer? And they came and removed the doors so that if a child got in, they could get back out,” said Ramirez, who previously worked as a pediatric nurse.
“I don’t understand why. There's no locks on these things or anything,” Kaufman said.
Kaufman’s yard has disabled vehicles, lawnmowers, bicycles, bins of DVDs, wood, and wet drywall.
“Rotten drywall with mold is going to be converted to what exactly?” Ramirez asked.
She said old mattresses are attracting raccoons, rats, and snakes.
When asked if he used the stuff in his yard, Kaufman responded, “Most of it. Yeah. I'm hanging onto it for friends too.”
There are multiple tires and dozens of boards stored on his mother’s roof.
“He had wood on the roof of his house that became projectiles and flew into the side of my home,” Ramirez said.
Kaufman said he plans to use the wood to build a back deck.
“It’s all temporary,” he said.
Fine approaches $75,000
The city has fined Kaufman's mother, Dolores Kaufman, $125 a day since August of 2023. Since then, Kaufman has refused to allow code enforcement to inspect his property since he was found to be in violation by the Code Enforcement Board.
“They wanted to come by and check out the back,” Kaufman said. “I told them the owner’s got too much valuable stuff. They don’t want anybody back in there.”
That stuff includes a boat filled with holes and an old van.
We talked to Dolores Kaufman about the situation and her $75,000 in fines.
“I don’t have any idea how it would get resolved,” she said. “I own the house, but I can’t do anything other than have him get rid of it. He's the one who brings it all in, not me."
City: “A hard challenge”
“It's a hard challenge due to the fact that the state law only allows us to do so much as code enforcement,” said Tarpon Springs Police Maj. Tauren Mathis, who is a spokesperson for code enforcement.
He encourages neighbors to be patient.
“I just ask that they continue to work with us and let us do the right thing and let us do it the proper way,” Mathis said. “I don’t have a timeline for you today about how long that would take, but I'm sure we’re working on it.”
“I'm hoping that if you shine a little light on it, maybe there’ll be some pressure. If it were a county commissioner living next door, I guarantee you this would have been cleaned up quite a long time ago,” Ramirez said.
We’ll stay on top of the situation and let you know what happens.