A Stink in Sunrise
Woman's smelly house causes statewide "emergency"
By BRIAN HAMACHER
Updated 1:17 PM EDT, Mon, Dec 7, 2009
It sounds like the kind of response reserved for a major catastrophe: police called in, reports to the Center for Disease Control and state Health Department, notifying the Governor.
So what's all the fuss? Only the smell coming from Debra Jean Higgins' house.
The 55-year-old Sunrise woman is creating quite a stink in her neighborhood, where her neighbors say the odor emanating from her house is unbearable.
"We can't go outside and enjoy our pool and our yard," neighbor Mark Sierens told the Sun-Sentinel. "The entire house is a litter box."
By all accounts, Higgins lives in a sty that would make pigs shiver. Already with over $600,000 in fines for code violations on her property, the house went through a top to bottom cleaning -- the outside of it, anyway -- in October. Higgins and her two dogs and seven cats were found surrounded by garbage inside the home on the 9300 block of NW 24th Place.
Higgins was taken to a hospital but later released, and neighbors like Sierens said the outside may be cleaned up, but it's what's inside that counts.
"The problem is not outside," Sierens said. "It's inside. You can't walk by her house without gagging."
Sierens has called just about everyone short of President Obama, including City Hall and Gov. Crist's office, to no avail.
That's no surprise though. Crist has enough stinky stuff to deal with.
First Published: Dec 7, 2009 8:26 AM EDT
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