Kill Devil Hills, N.C. - A quiet pond in Kill Devil Hills has been tarnished with trash.
"There's somebody's Christmas tree, we've got carpet that's mixed in with the grass here as the grass has come out with the warm weather,” said Andy Deel, who owns the pond.
They are not items you normally find in a scenic spot, but for Deel, he’s constantly fishing them out of his pond, after people have been illegally dumping anything and everything for the past six months.
"If you're somebody who believes that stealing is wrong, you shouldn't be dumping on my property because you're taking my time. Time I could be using to do something I enjoy much more than putting on waders and getting in a natural pond in the woods in the Outer Banks,” Deel added.
The pond is a private piece of property within the Nags Head Nature Preserve. It’s a secluded area with its only paved road leading to the pond.
"This is a really pretty spot. It's a natural pond with wildlife in it and it's our preference not to have it junked up,” he said.
Deel told NewsChannel3 there’s even more garbage that sank to the bottom that we can’t see, including part of a trailer, bike and a stroller.
Now, police are taking action. In an effort to stop all the littering, police say they've set up cameras around the area.
"It's deterrence. If people know that there's a camera out here, it will deter people from coming back here. We're not going to reach everybody but the ones we do catch back here, we will prosecute them,” said Kill Devil Hills police captain Mark Evans.
Until then, Deel plans for the future.
"We plan to build our dream house on this piece of property. This will be home. Obviously when I'm here I’ll be able to keep an eye on it. But as it is now, they're just adding to the work that I've got to do to get there."
And that work means climbing in and cleaning out his future front yard.
