BRIGHTMOOR, Mich. – Armed with a camera, Jonathon Pommerville has been on a crusade for years to keep illegal dumpers out of Brightmoor and his tactics of shaming people seem to have rubbed off.
A mess of tree stumps and debris was dumped at Fenkell and Riverdale avenues and Pommerville took to social media to get results.
A neighbor saw the dumping in progress and gave chase, getting the company’s information and getting in touch with Pommerville, who provided the company’s phone number in a Youtube video encouraging others to call the owner to complain.
Mr. Tree Inc., of Oxford, received some 50 voice mails and hundreds of angry Facebook messages. The owner, Chad Cartwright, didn’t know about the dumping until he got into the office Friday morning.
The big mess was cleaned up Friday with Cartwright behind the wheel of the Bobcat.
"You have to man up," Cartwright said.
Cartwright told Local 4 that his employee was hauling debris from a job in Northville and was supposed to take it to a dump in Farmington. Cartwright gave the employee $50 for the dumping fee. The employee pocketed the cash and dumped the load on a street in Brightmoor.
The employee has been fired.
Cartwright was helped by Alpine Tree Service, also out of Oxford.
"Industry pride," Alpine’s Dustin Kruger said. "Even if it’s not our mess."
Pommerville has been fighting dumping in Brightmoor for more than a year and his following is growing.
"Within 24 hours, we have the owner and others," Pommerville said. "This does not go on deaf ears. We are not your dumping ground you will not do this to us."