Remarkable to abandon a fully paid house!

Only a very very wealthy person could afford to abandon a house like this? Surely he has wantoks who could have salvaged it? Probably more than K300,000 lost.

Neighbors want residence cleaned up
by Aly - October 14th, 2009 - 2:36 pm| Neighbors | 3 comments

The front yard at 511 Annex looks like a jungle.
Neighbors say it gets progressively worse every week.
Retired Minister Donald Hall lives across the street. He says the Papua New Guinea man who owned the house once had beautiful roses and well manicured shrubs. But all that ended on May 29th.
Messed Up has learned that is the day that Shelbyville Police arrested Lason Watai charging him with 2 counts of solicitation of a minor, 2 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of attempted statutory rape.
Shelbyville authorities say the former Asst. Vanderbilt Professor in Engineering and computer science was attempting to meet a 13 year old girl on line for sex. It turns out the 13 year old girl was really a police detective.
Messed Up calls the Bedford County Jail and discovers that Watai is no longer in custody. The jail confirms that he served 99 days and then was released to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Sources in the Bedford Co. D.A.s office say they believe that Mr. Watai was deported back to his home country of New Guinea.
That would explain why the lawn is so unkempt. Now the question is what to do about it?
Councilman Buddy Baker represents this district. Baker says he has tried everything he can think of working through conventional channels. He has called Metro Codes and Metro Health. Citations have been written and the process initiated. But what good is the process when the owner doesnt even reside in the United States of America.
City officials say they cannot legally go onto private property and cut lawns etc.
Baker also tells Messed Up that Watai owned his home free and clear. That means no bank is going to foreclose and clean up the lawn for a resale.
So what to do?
Codes officials tell Messed Up this is a very unusual case.
Buddy Baker tells messed Up he is attempting to round up a church or civic organization that might be willing to help out.
Though this is an extreme case, I suggest to Baker that there are many cases like this, where the property owner abandons the property. I suggest an ordinance.
Baker is non committal on this, but he is steadfast in his desire to clean up 511 Annex.
Well keep you posted.