Op-Ed: Homeless Family of 12 Blames Law Enforcement For Destroying Home

What could be construed as the "money pit," a Kentucky family attempts to move their mobile home and belongings for $200 US via a farm tractor and trailer despite warnings to the contrary. After about a mile, the whole lot creates quite an issue.

The blame game is being played once again and this time the contestants are a family of many versus a local sheriff. The story of what happened sounds horribly tragic from the outside, with a family fulfilling their lifelong dream of home ownership, all to have it taken away by the evil orders of one authority figure. In a recent news article, the opening line states how

A Kentucky woman says her family will be homeless this Thanksgiving because a sheriff had her mobile home destroyed.

Tragic! How one man could order the destruction of a mobile home where 12 people reside, including 8 children. But another story sits on the side of the road, littering one man's yard. Frances Barton, the owner of the mobile home, was said to have paid $5,000 for the house on wheels. The average going rate for a mobile home these days is just under $40,000 US. With used mobile homes in Kentucky starting at around $10,000 US, its safe to say that Barton got one heck of a deal on her pre-made abode, although the current condition of the home was not specified. Having 12 people living in a 3 bed, 2 bath geometric shape, how many people is that per room? Well, kindergarten education pending, I'd say four? Still, the story is not about the condition of her home or how many people resided in the house. Not yet. Frances Barton decided to mobilize her mobile home to a plot of land she was buying for $250 US per month. So she paid a Mr. Chris "Pancake" Meyers $200 US to do the job. Pancake? Really? Like anyone with a food item for a middle name is going to be a reputable contractor in transporting mobile homes? So lets backtrack a bit, the average cost of moving a mobile home using a contracted service can vary but typically, an insured individual is around $10,000 US depending upon the location and liability. Assuming that the "pancake" was fully loaded, you know not low-carb or sugar free, getting a mobile home onto a trailer in itself is a daunting task so asking $200 bucks for the job means there are going to be some serious cuts in certain measures, like anything except the basic loan of a trailer and maybe some help loading it? And according to Barton, Mr. Breakfast had 13 years experience in "hauling things." Still, Barton paid pancake to move the mobile home for her and 11 others who resided in the home. She also told newspaper reporters that

"she believed Meyers when he said he had all the required permits and insurance."

Now that I'm feeling a song coming on about some ocean front property and a desert state in the middle of America, the story continues as "Pancake" Meyers loaded it up and headed out when all of a sudden, his moving machine, a farm tractor and attached trailer, lost two wheels. REALLY? Two wheels? But he had insurance, right? Well, the two-legged, I mean wheeled trailer and its mobile home built for twelve and all of its contents, because apparently, the family didn't pack up their belongings but rather had them transported inside the home, it is a "mobile" home, came to a stop on U.S. 68, a 560 mile narrow stretch of scenic and highly traveled highway between Ohio and Kentucky. Here it sat for more than nine hours, slowing traffic and providing some entertainment at the home of Jim Gaunce. In the rain, Sheriff Dick Garrett did his job directing traffic well into early morning while Barton tried to find a way to get her home off the highway and save it but at 2 am, a decision had to be made. According to a local report, Lee Roberts of Roberts Heavy-Duty Towing in Lexington said his company was called in to help and stated that "We tried to pull the trailer back on the road but couldn't without tearing it to pieces." They were asked to help clear the highway, but Roberts declined to do so because of the structural damage that would likely occur. The order was given, the family allowed to clear their belongings and at least one tractor attempted to push the mobile home from the U.S. highway. The 25-year-old mobile home crumbled like a brick of feta cheese onto Gaunce's lawn and who is getting the brunt of the finger? Sheriff Garrett. He is now being directly blamed by the group for failing to have respect for the Barton home, as it sat blocking a federal highway, occupying serious man hours that are graciously paid for by the great taxpayers of our nation. Mind you, Garrett and another deputy are the only law officials and spending nine hours directing traffic because of another's idiocy? Well, there comes a time when a decision must be made. How much time would have been enough to justify the wasting of taxpayer dollars so one family could cut costs and transport their home and all its belongings on a trailer pulled by a tractor without themselves abiding by the law? They were simply not given "enough time," Barton claims, although Garrett gave them several hours to remove the things they wanted from the home before they pushed it off the highway and even asked numerous times if they had everything they needed. As Garrett stated in the Lexington-Herald Leader, the whole crew could have been arrested for their illegal move:

the group didn't have a required permit or escort. Basically, he said, he could have arrested the lot of them

Still, they are pointing the finger at the sheriff and saying he is responsible for them being homeless on Thanksgiving. The sheriff has given the group 10 days to clear the debris from Mr. Jim Gaunce's yard. I wonder if they will see that as enough time? The loss of their home is tragic, indeed. However, the risks of cutting corners due to being poor, as the woman stated of their situation in the following article, are risks that have consequences. Even the sheriff stated that hateful comments from travelers who were forced to wait in traffic for hours because of what equates to closing down a major federal highway for half a day were enough to say that enough is enough. The family did receive some Red Cross relief but will have to find another place to stay over the holidays as they didn't have any insurance on their home. See related story here. .