City Loses Patience With Man Who Collects Trash, Again

At first glance, the cul-de-sac at the end of Havenwood Drive looks like any other part of this well-tended, well-to-do town.

But a closer look reveals something quite different--the home of Adolph Leben--and an ever-growing junkyard worthy of “Sanford and Son.”

After years of scuffling with Leben over his habit of collecting piles of rubbish, Thousand Oaks has once gain decided to file misdemeanor charges against the pack rat, whom neighbors describe as a kindly eccentric.

Leben faces up to six months behind bars. He could not be reached for comment on Friday.

It would not be the first time that Leben has gone to jail over his junk heap, a tangle of rusted, old trucks and empty booze bottles, iron wagon wheels and plastic milk crates.

During the past seven years, Leben has been incarcerated twice and has been ordered to undergo psychological counseling for his refusal to clean up his yard. City officials have twice entered his property to remove the trash--the last time was nine months ago.

But Assistant City Atty. Jim Friedl contends that Leben has already returned his home-grown dump back to the way it was before. He said he and the city’s code-enforcement department have lost their patience with Leben.

“He understands where we’re coming from,” Friedl said. “We feel like we’re back at square one, and there’s no need to let him know what we want from him anymore.”

Neighbors agree. They say the time has come to dismantle Leben’s junk empire once and for all.

“In all these years, I’ve never seen him put out the trash,” said Susan Bachner, who lives across the street from Leben. “He’s an importer, not an exporter.”

When the sun goes down, Leben goes out, collects more odds and ends and dumps them on his front lawn, Bachner said. Then, with help from his adolescent son and daughter, he arranges his new belongings and moves some of them to his backyard, clearly ignoring a large “No Dumping” sign placed there by the city.

Although neighbors feel the trash piles are a nuisance and a health hazard--attracting rats, lizards and insects to the cul-de-sac--they expressed sympathy for Leben.

“He’s a nice guy,” Bachner said. “He would help anybody out. We don’t want him to go to jail. It’s a difficult situation.”

City leaders say they too feel that Leben needs counseling and should be treated with compassion. But they also understand how neighbors could find him annoying.

“I feel sorry for this man, because he obviously has a problem,” said Councilwoman Judy Lazar. “But for the sake of his neighbors, I think we need to take it up again.”

Mayor Andy Fox, who is a captain with the Los Angeles Fire Department, said pack rats such as Leben can create dangerous and unsanitary conditions for neighbors and their children. Even worse, trash heaps can also block authorities from getting to a neighboring home during a blaze, he said.

That is exactly how Thousand Oaks officials first learned about Leben. In 1989, when a tree caught fire in the yard of Leben’s next-door neighbor, firefighters could not get through Leben’s yard and had to climb a nearby roof to put it out.

After learning that Leben was facing trouble with the law over his junk pile, fellow members of St. Paschal Baylon Church offered to help him clean his yard. But after one visit, Leben asked them not to come back because he was afraid he could not control what they were throwing out, one member said.

A neighbor, who asked that her name not be used, said she has grown tired of staring at the faux junkyard from her living room window. Rats are constantly scurrying around her lawn, and another neighbor recently found a dead baby alligator on his property.

But Leben keeps adding to his collection, she said. Once, when she was remodeling her house, Leben came by and asked if he could keep some large slabs of concrete she was about to discard, even though they were obviously useless. She said no.

“I think the house should be condemned or something,” she said, gazing out at the mounds of rubbish in Leben’s backyard. “Where does he get all that stuff? I think it’s an illness, I really do.”