FORT WORTH, Texas — A smell from illegal dumping outside a store in a Fort Worth neighborhood forced people to take matters into their own hands.
For weeks, people have dumped so much trash in the parking lot of the Family Dollar on McCart Avenue that a city code enforcement officer has launched an investigation.
On Friday afternoon, volunteers decided the parking lot trash had to go.
Family Dollar customers like A.J. Jones could smell the trash coming and going. He has been seeing the trash pile grow for weeks.
Not only does the smell bother him, but so does the sight of all the trash consisting of everything from used diapers, to clothing, to molded food to mattresses.
Jones said, "This is this is just a disgrace, come in here and just dropped off stuff like that, it doesn't make sense."
So, the volunteers put on gloves, grabbed trash bags and went to work.
Teenager Miguel Trevino shared some of the stuff left behind. His young neighbor showed up to help pick up the trash, too.
"It's just disgusting. It's nasty," said Trevino. "It was food, milk, toys, clothes. Lunch, moldy cheese. Old milk. Maggots."
Family Dollar posted a phone number on the door for customers to help stop the illegal dumping. During the clean up, the volunteers got some unexpected help, and Trevino shared why cleaning up is so personal.
"I walking to the store with my sister, and she tried to touch it. My little sister, she is just two. She saw some toys in there," said Trevino.
Lavelle Hines joined the clean-up, along with a couple of Family Dollar employees who hope this doesn't happen again.
Hines is one of the first homeowners who started voicing the concerns about the illegal dumping, which appeared to get worse by the day. One of the store customers even sorted through a trash bag after seeing a woman dump it and found her personal information inside the bag.
Hines had ongoing conversations with the store managers at Family Dollar about what needs to be done to stop the dumping.
"I don't fault Family Dollar for this at all," said Hines. "I fault the people who pulled up to this location and just dumped the trash."
Minutes after the clean-up Friday afternoon, a Fort Worth code compliance officer conducted another inspection. The case is still an open and active investigation.
There are video cameras outside the Family Dollar store, but no word if the retail giant has shared surveillance video to try to identify those responsible.
To promote clean neighborhoods, the City of Fort Worth is recruiting people for its Code Rangers class on July 16. Code enforcement officers teach citizens how to report violators but remain anonymous.
There is a limited number of spaces, so concerned citizens, community leaders and homeowners are encouraged to sign up early.
The City of Fort Worth also offers help to people in neighborhoods who are interested in conducting clean-up campaigns. Fort Worth will assist with things like trash bags, gloves and other items needed to remove trash and debris through its Keep Fort Worth Beautiful campaign. There is no cost to citizens who want to hold a clean-up in their area.