Police said 24-year-old Byron Edwin Barrett dumped bags of garbage every night for weeks in the median of New Bern Avenue. He's charged with littering.
Police aren't sure but they say the amount of trash dumped was somewhere between 15 and 500 pounds.
Police were first alerted to the problem by tips to a city website where people noted garbage and garbage bags being dumped in the median of New Bern Avenue right before the Neuse River Bridge.
Police said they, at first, picked up the garbage but then noticed another bag each night for the past two weeks. So they kept a close eye on the location.
Monday night, they said they caught Barrett red handed as he threw the garbage out of his car window.
Even more baffling is the fact that Barrett lives in a nearby apartment and had to drive by the dumpster to get out of the complex.
His neighbors describe him as a nice guy who keeps to himself, and they were baffled by the charges.
"Honestly, I just can't believe it because he just doesn't seem -- not that there's a type -- but he doesn't appear to be anyone that would cause a disturbance," said Barrett's neighbor, Pam Goodman. "I'm very surprised."
In court Tuesday, Barrett told the judge he wanted to hire his own attorney. However, he never offered his side of the story.
One of Barrett's friends said Barrett doesn't even keep much food in his house, and that he can't imagine how Barrett could generate a bag of garbage every day for two weeks.
See It On TV | Report A Typo |
Send Tip |
Get Alerts | Send us photos
Follow @abc11 on Twitter | Become a fan on Facebook
