CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A big trash pile illegally dumped and left in a man's yard for months will be cleaned up by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, even though CMS says it didn't dump it.
The garbage pile in William Ray's yard on Heavy Equipment School Road has been rotting for five months. Several items in the pile are labeled as coming from Thomasboro Elementary School or CMS.
Ray says the first time he saw the pile, "It was higher than me."
"Books, notebooks, science projects -- you name it, it's here," he said.
NewsChannel 36 found a microscope, math books, binders, math flash cards, Disney books and instructional material. One book was labeled "return to CMS Science Center."
Ray says in July, a red pickup truck dumped two loads of garbage in his yard. His property is clearly marked as private property with no trespassing.
He says he confronted the people in the pickup with a gun.
"But they just took off," Ray said.
Ray, 60, is disabled from a vein condition.
CMS contracts its garbage removal with Mecklenburg County. The county doesn't use red pickup trucks.
NewsChannel 36 asked CMS if it hired other trucks to haul garbage from the school. CMS says it doesn't know what happened, but it didn't dump the garbage.
"I'm disabled and on a fixed income. There's no way I can pay to get it hauled off. I'm not the one that hauled it in," Ray said.
Ray says estimates put the cost of the garbage removal at $600 to $700.
CMS says, in the interest of being a good neighbor, it will clean it up. The cleanup is expected to happen in a few days.
