Clean City notified the Springfield Police Department and officers began their investigation. After reviewing footage from surveillance cameras in the area, police officers discovered a female, later identified as Springfield resident Jessica Santos, and a group of seven (7) unknown males emptying out household furniture and other items from a rented U-Haul box truck.
Springfield Police Officer Tommie Hart and officers assigned to the Ordinance Unit, under the direction of Sgt. William Catellier, traced the markings on the U-Haul truck from the surveillance footage to a local U-Haul store where the vehicle was rented from. Officers were able to connect the rented vehicle to Ms. Santos who later admitted to officers that she used the truck to dump the items. Ms. Santos was issued an Ordinance Violation and a criminal complaint was filed for illegal dumping.
Mayor Sarno states, “Once again tremendous work by our brave and dedicated Springfield Police Officers. Special thanks and a shoutout to the Clean City team, who again, noticed illegal dumping and notified our Springfield Police Officers so that they could investigate and hold them responsible and accountable for their crime – an entire U-Haul truck of furniture, they have no shame. Once again, I, along with our residents and businesses, now call upon the courts to do their job and hold this blatant illegal dumper accountable for thinking that they can use our Springfield as their personal dumping ground. I will not stand for this. We are going to remain vigilant to ensure everyone understands illegal dumping will not be tolerated in the city of Springfield and we will go after these individuals to the full extent of the law.”
“Our Ordinance Unit did an excellent job identifying and apprehending this suspect. This quality of life issue quickly can become extremely costly for property owners to clean up. I want to thank our Parks Department for their efforts working with my officers and installing these surveillance cameras in known hot spot areas – we will catch you. We hope the courts take these charges seriously as they would not want this kind of activity to happen in their hometowns,” said Springfield Police Superintendent Cheryl Clapprood.
