Joplin property owner says she's being forced to clean up someon - KOAM TV 7

 A Joplin property owner says she's being forced to clean up someone else's trash.  The property says she doesn't understand why someone is dumping what they don't want on her land.

Samantha Joseph says she's dealing with a lot of garbage in her life.

"It's heartbreaking," says Joseph.

Joseph says she used to live on her property on New Hampshire road before the tornado destroyed her home.

"I come here, I pass here by my lot, praying every day," says Joseph.

But she says sometime during the Fourth of July holiday, she saw a pile of wood.  Many of the pieces of wood are in good enough shape to help rebuild a home.

"Look at the size of it.  They had to have had a truck," says Joseph.

...a truck or similar-sized vehicle to get the wood on her property.  The problem is, though, Joseph says she didn't put the wood on her property.  She says the wood isn't even hers.

"So somebody dumped," says Joseph.

Nearby homes have already been rebuilt since the tornado.

"So I'm thinking they had to actually go around, looking for empty lots such as mine, and dump here.  And I've asked the neighbors," says Joseph.

"I saw two trucks pull up, so I thought they were going to build something," says nearby homeowner Jo Greer.

Joseph says she's still trying to find money to rebuild her home.  She's following City of Joplin ordinances and paying some workers to remove the wood from her property.  

She also says something similar happened last winter.

"It was probably triple this.  I had shingles.  I had a hot water heater, a bent-up air conditioner unit.  I had wood.  I had siding.  Some baby's toys were even in the trash pile that they had," says Joseph.

"These are some difficult cases to investigate, just because of a lack of evidence.  Usually what helps out, is some video footage of who it was that put the trash there," says Lieutenant Matt Stewart with the Joplin Police Department.

So until Joseph comes up with that evidence, she only has a message to Whom it May Concern:  Put your trash where it belongs.

"I'm sure if they're a builder, they have places to go where they can dispose of things," says Joseph.

Joseph tells us she's going to continue working with organizations, hoping to get help to rebuild her home.

Joseph says she spent $175 for the clean-up from this past winter.  This time around, she's paying $80.  The City of Joplin says its sending the Habitat for Humanity Restore to Joseph's property to also pick up what has been left on her land.