NEW ORLEANS — “We had all this space to play,” Gayle Perez said. “It was a great childhood.”
In the 70’s, the Yepez kids’ imaginations grew with the blades of grass in New Orleans East.
“In these woods, they learned to fight wars,” Gayle’s father Jaime Yepez said laughing.
Friday, their childhood backyard was a playground for wild pigs and car thieves.
“When I came to check on my parents I thought what happened here!” Perez said.
On Friday, Jaime Yepez and his daughter Gayle woke up to their backyard ripped apart.
“Pigs or wild boars ripped up this entire backyard and side yard,” Perez said.
The wild hogs weren’t the only unwanted visitors that night.
Feet away from the pig’s play place, a Kia Sedan sits abandoned in the mud.
“You can see where they ripped part of the steering wheel apart,” Perez said.
Gayle says she reported the stolen Kia to NOPD but never heard back from them.
According to Council Member Oliver Thomas, stolen and abandoned cars are a city-wide problem.
“Since we’re low on labor in the police department, when neighbors call me I’ll go take a look at it myself,” Council Member Oliver Thomas said.
When it comes to wild hogs, he says that falls on the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
“Many of the wild animals are adapting to our community and not leaving so something has to be done,” Thomas said.
Jaime wants something to be done too, because his grandkids' imaginations will have to grow in a different backyard.
“It’s sad. I want to move, but I raise my children here,” Yepez said.
WWL Louisiana tried calling NOPD too, but we didn’t hear back from them either.
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