Thursday, August 09, 2007
Neighbors ask city to stop Pittsburg man from living in his car

A Pittsburg, Kan., man has been living in his car, parked in his family's back yard, for the last seven years because of an ongoing feud with his wife. (“She’s not going to support me not having a job and bumming around,” he said. “I’m trying my best to get a job and get up out of this rut.”)

Thanks to an extension cord, he's got a TV, radio and oscillating fan. Here's a little more about his living conditions:

Sanders ( a neighbor) said one of the worst incidents she’s had with Graham occurred shortly after her son-in-law came home from Iraq in mid-June. She said she and her family were working on building a shed in their back yard, and Graham began to burn trash and other debris in a trash can across the alley.

“I walked out there, and (the smell) was terrible,” she said. “Then Ronnie came out the back door and said, ‘It smells just like back in Baghdad.’ He said he’d been on detail where they have to burn excrement and said that was exactly what it smells like.”

Graham said the allegation that he urinates and defecates in the yard is “a crock.”

“No, I go elsewhere,” he said. “I don’t expose myself to people.”

Now the neighbors are going to the city and asking for a new law stopping this guy from living in his car.