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Filthy Sunrise Home, $600K In Fines, Gets Clean-Up

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Nov 1, 2009 8:48 am US/Eastern

Filthy Sunrise Home, $600K In Fines, Gets Clean-Up

SUNRISE (CBS4) ― A messy property is a messy problem for Debra Higgins. Things were so bad, she now owes more than half a million dollars in fines to the city of Sunrise for code violations. The fines increased daily as the mess remained, but that stopped Saturday when volunteers stepped in and helped Higgins do what she couldn't do alone; clean up the trash.

More than a dozen volunteers came to Higgins' property Saturday to clean up, and stop Higgins from incurring more fines.

The work went far beyond your normal clean-up. A 40-cubic-yard dumpster, normally used for building demolition cleanup, was filled with trash from the property. The volunteers found and removed a 4-foot beehive, complete with bees. Still needed: volunteers to cut down two trees.

Sunrise Commissioner Larry Sofield Higgins will still owes more than $600,000 in fines, but so long as the property is maintained the new fines that had been added daily should stop.

Higgins' property gained attention in October when an employee from a power company visited the house and was greeted by a stench so powerful he thought someone had died.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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