NEW ORLEANS — It appears a truck with Costco decals was caught allegedly illegally dumping material in New Orleans East.
"Allegedly based on the video, there was a contractor, a 16 or 18-wheeler that was dumping stuff with the Costco sign on it," said Councilman Oliver Thomas.
The truck in question is plastered with the Costco logo, it says "delivering Costco.com to your door".
Neighbors say they saw a fridge dumped. Eyewitness News reached out to Costco, who said, "Management has no comment at this time."
"We need to start catching these people, confiscating their vehicles, giving them some jail time, hefty tickets and making an example of them," said Thomas.
He says enough is enough. He wants sting operations initiated to catch those illegally dumping. "Why are these haulers passing through other communities and other states to dump in Orleans Parish specifically New Orleans East," he said.
At the intersection of Lake Forest and Michoud Blvd. is a thoroughfare travelled by many, but imagine travelling through your neighborhood and seeing this rubbish dumped. Residents who live in the area say they're sick and tired of people destroying their neighborhood.
Cong Tran, a New Orleans East resident said, "They're dumping everywhere around here, we're very frustrated."
He went on to say, "I have been around here for 50 years and I never see anything like this."
Scott Boyle with LADOTD says the department has been cleaning up Michoud Blvd. since last October. "We've actually cleaned over 10,000 tires and multiple cubic yards of illegally-dumped construction debris at that interchange."
He says illegal dumping is a huge problem for the department, and that if caught dumpers could face hefty fines, even prison time. "We had observed people coming in there and dumping while we were cleaning up so it's a prolific problem," said Boyle.
Councilman Thomas says he's beyond frustrated, "To many people who live here don't respect the city they live in and trash it and too many people who are not from here, have no respect for us at all."
While residents like Tran fear that without action, illegal dumping will continue. "It will become a dumping place for everybody," said Tran.