Business Volunteers to Clean Up Illegal Dump on Elderly Woman's Land

An elderly woman facing court sanctions for failing to remove thousands of tires left by unknown polluters on her Lithonia property has been given a reprieve by employees of an area tire store. 

In late May – after the family had exhausted its bank accounts to remove tires -- about 6,000 tires remained on Ruth Connor's property. The 81-year-old doesn’t live on the land, so she said had no idea that illegal dumping was going on at the site. 

"To get rid of the tires its about $100 a ton," her daughter-in-law, Tammie Connor, told WSB TV. "We've spent about $5,000-$6,000 already to get half of what you see here." 

Code violations meant for Connor were mailed by DeKalb County to a different address, so she says she didn’t receive them. As a result, a bench warrant for her arrest was issued for failing to appear in court on the violations.

When the TV station reported on the family’s losing battle to clean up the site and keep authorities from seizing Connor’s property, employees with Tires Plus decided to step in to help.

“We saw the story on the news and realized immediately we had someone in our own community that was in trouble,” Tires Plus district manager Mike Nocilla told WSB Thursday.
 
Employees planned to bring in several trucks – each holds about 1,300 tires – to remove all of the tires from Connor’s property. All of the people helping on the cleanup were Tires Plus employees who volunteered on their day off.

Connor must appear in court on June 24 to resolve the issue.