View Full Version : wierd stories relating to neighborhoods


HARTride 2012
October 13th, 2008, 10:55 PM
Okay, I've heard some pretty odd stories in respect to developments and neighborhoods. But this one is just way too wierd in my eyes.

HOA: We're not 'a pack of Nazis'
Monday, October 13, 2008
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PASCO COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- A Pasco County man's community pulled together to help him out after he was arrested for not replacing the brown sod in his yard.

Joseph Prudente, 66, got a $1,000 fine from the Beacon Woods Civic Association in Hudson after he didn't replace the brown sod in his yard.

Prudente said he didn't do it because he had to pay his home mortgage, which was two months behind.

But when he didn't show up for a court date over the brown yard, a judge found him in contempt of court. Prudente had to report to jail and he did it wearing his "Grandpa Gone Wild shirt."

"The other residents (inmates) they didn't believe it when I says, 'why you in here', I says 'grass'," Prudente said. "They say 'you mean' (gesture). I said 'no grass on the ground.'"

He spent two nights in jail, which outraged Andy Hall, who saw the story in the newspaper.

"I personally thought it was wrong. It's wrong to put our senior citizens in jail for a brown lawn," he said.

Hall rallied 15-20 people from the community, including a city council member. They worked all day to put Prudente's yard together.

"You get a bunch of guys and it's like putting a puzzle together," Hall said.

They got donated sod, a sprinkler and the yard was green again.

So, the judge released Prudente.

Now, the HOA president is getting hate e-mail from across the world.

"We are not as we we're called in some of e-mail 'a pack of Nazis', we're not power hungry people," said HOA president Bob Ryan. "We are simply fellow home owners of Mr. Prudente, I felt sorry for him."

But he says Prudente didn't follow the rules and the HOA were just following rules that apply with Florida statue's for homeowner associations.

http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2008/10/13/391562.html?title=HOA:++We're+not+'a+pack+of+Nazis'

I-275westcoastfl
October 14th, 2008, 04:58 AM
That ridiculous, I remember flipping a house in St.Pete when we had to put grass in or else fines, but this is just ridiculous.

Robert.Maddrey
October 14th, 2008, 02:50 PM
Read that article in the TBT yesterday, pretty ridiculous.

HARTride 2012
October 14th, 2008, 03:06 PM
I agree. I think in this case, the HOA has gone too far.

JBrisco
October 19th, 2008, 05:40 PM
No thats what you get for ruining nature.
lol jk.

John F
October 19th, 2008, 07:48 PM
1994 or 1995, I had neighbors (who still live just up the block from me) have there home foreclosed on them for repeatedly violating the Deed Restrictions of my neighborhood. There was a furor and an uproar over it, it was on A Current Affair and what not...