Junk Collector Gets 30 Days in Jail for Failing to Clear Yard

A Thousand Oaks junk collector, regarded by neighbors as a kindly eccentric, received a 30-day jail sentence Wednesday for failing to clear debris from his home on Havenwood Drive.

Deputy City Atty. Nancy Schreiner said the city had asked only for a seven-day jail term and a court-ordered psychological evaluation for Adolph Leben. But Municipal Court Judge John Smiley, sitting in Simi Valley, instead handed down a 30-day sentence to begin Sept. 21.

Leben, an aerospace planner, was unavailable for comment Wednesday and was not represented by an attorney in court, Schreiner said.

‘Can’t Clean Anything’

A friend and neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, remarked: “It’s not going to do him any good to put him in jail. He can’t clean anything up when he’s in jail, can he?”

Schreiner said that Leben could apply for a work furlough and that if he cleaned up his property before Sept. 21 he could ask for a modified sentence.

Leben pleaded guilty in April to charges of creating a public nuisance and a fire hazard. He was placed on probation and ordered to clean up his yard by July 1 but failed to meet that deadline and an extension.

After the city renewed prosecution, the men’s club of Leben’s church offered to help him and began clearing his yard. Club members who attend St. Paschal’s Baylon Church in Thousand Oaks were planning to return Aug. 5 to finish the task when Leben phoned their president and asked them not to come.

‘Organize His Stuff’

“He requested that he have 30 days to organize his stuff before we come by,” Edward Krol said Wednesday. “He was afraid we’d come there, and he wouldn’t have any control of what was going out.”

Scrap metal and old appliances, woodpiles, rusted cars and rolls of old fencing are among the items obscuring Leben’s two-story home.

Neighbors said they have long marveled at the growing collection and have lodged quiet complaints over the years. But they said they never pushed the issue because Leben was quiet, pleasant and frequently offered to help them with domestic chores.

A fire at a next-door house in April, in which firefighters were hampered from reaching the scene by Leben’s debris, prompted some neighbors to reconsider the potential dangers of the junk collection. But Schreiner said the timing of the fire and the court date in April were coincidental.