SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Alan Davis, Seminole County’s infamous “junk man” who’s frustrated neighbors with his unsightly yard for 25 years, is commemorating the anniversary of his very first county code violation by creating a new fiberglass sculpture to adorn his trash-filled property: a 6-foot-tall representation of a human buttocks.
Davis has displayed multiple sculpted posteriors of various sizes in his yard over the past quarter century along with stacks of scrap metal, PVC pipes, steel drums, rusted appliances, tarps, hoses, junked vehicles, and towering weeds that he occasionally sprinkled with fertilizer to grow larger.
It’s all part of what Davis describes as a “political protest” against Seminole County government that he argues is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“You can all kiss my (expletive),” said Davis, who has spent decades taunting county officials as they’ve attempted to enforce local ordinances governing the appearance and safety of unincorporated neighborhoods. “I pile it up intentionally to aggravate them.”
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
Neighbors like David Radosevich are discouraged that Seminole County officials have so far been unable to permanently remove the eyesore in their community.
“I thought for sure by now it’d be cleaned up,” Radosevich recently told News 6. “It’s a junkyard.”
In April 2000, a code enforcement officer documented “objectionable, unsightly or unsanitary matter” on Davis’s property that could “endanger or adversely affect the health, safety, lives and/or welfare” of Seminole County citizens.
Find more from our News 6 Investigators:
The county’s code enforcement board later issued Davis a $13,000 fine for noncompliance along with additional fines of $250 each day that he failed to correct the violation.
That code enforcement case has remained open for 25 years, county records show, along with seven additional cases initiated since then for violations such as uncultivated vegetation, junked vehicles and unpermitted construction. The most recent code enforcement case was opened in 2019.
Davis owed Seminole County $5,432,300 in code violation fines as of mid-January, records show, with hundreds of dollars in additional fines accruing daily until the violations are corrected. Those fines are recorded as liens against Davis’s property.
“I’m not going to pay it,” Davis told News 6 as he stood in front a two-story wood structure in his front yard that he admittedly built without first obtaining county permits. “The government doesn’t permit me to do anything. I do what I want on my property.”
Davis does not live within a homeowner’s association, and his unincorporated Seminole County property is protected from being seized and sold by most creditors under the Homestead exemption enshrined in Florida’s constitution.
“(Unless) the property owner attempts to sell or transfer the property, the County’s ability to collect is limited,” said Andy Wontor, a county spokesperson. “Seminole County will continue to accrue fines in accordance with state statutes.”
Seminole County officials obtained court orders in 2002 and 2015 authorizing the sheriff to seize the junk and other personal property.
Each time, the county spent more $9,000 of taxpayer money renting moving trucks and hiring contractors to haul away tens of thousands of pounds of debris during day-long cleanup operations.
But almost as soon as the county had finished hauling away the unsightly materials, Davis began piling even more rubbish on his lawn, some of which he obtained from his former job restoring vintage World War II aircraft.
In 2004, a jury convicted Davis of a third-degree felony for violating the Florida Litter Law that prohibits dumping litter exceeding 500 pounds.
After Davis spent nearly a year in state prison, judges found that he repeatedly violated the terms of his supervised release and sent him back to custody for a total of three more years.
Davis pleaded no contest to a separate felony littering charge in 2017 that originally spared him from incarceration. But he was later sentenced to a year in the county jail after a judge determined Davis failed to comply with local ordinances as required by his plea agreement.
Davis, who has been married to his wife Aileen for more than 35 years and raised a daughter in the house, recently told News 6 he has no regrets about his decades-long battle with the county.
“Freedom has a look. This is what it looks like. This is freedom,” said Davis as he gestured towards his cluttered yard. “If the government can tell you what to do with your property, you don’t have freedom.”
At age 69, Davis said he hopes to retire soon from his job as a truck mechanic. Davis got that job more than two decades ago through a prison work release program while serving his first felony littering sentence.
“I’ve been a renegade all my life,” said Davis. “I don’t like being told what to do.”
Seminole County officials said they remain committed to addressing citizen concerns and will continue to advocate for residents’ well-being and quality of life.
“Seminole County understands the community’s frustrations with this long-standing issue,” said Wontor. “Over the past 25 years, the County has pursued every legal action available under state statutes, including accruing fines against the property in question. Unfortunately, without changes to state law, our ability to enforce further action is limited.”
Radosevich, who fears hurricane-force winds will someday blow Davis’s debris onto his property, has given up hope that Davis’s yard will be brought into compliance with local codes.
“The county doesn’t have our back. They just gave up on us,” said Radosevich. “I don’t ever see it changing while I’m on earth unless the county stands up and does something about it.”
You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below: