A woman who lives on Gardner Street with her daughter and mother woke up at 3 a.m. one night to find a strange man climbing over her fence from the vacant house next door.
It is the house with the overgrown yard, that neighbors say draws snakes, mice and other wildlife.
It has active beehives in the backyard that vandals have kicked over, and cracked open.
The roof had several small holes when it was photographed in 2013. Those holes are now "big enough to drop a cow through," according to those who have driven by recently.
The problem child of the 1200 block drew complaints from about half a dozen nearby residents and property owners Monday, during a meeting of the Poplar Bluff City Council.
It is an example of an epidemic in the city, caused by a breakdown of the system meant to protect residents, according to landlord Greg West.
"We have a great town, but if we don't as a community get ahead of this curve of trash, derelict, abandoned homes, homes that look like trash dumps, we're asking for a much bigger problem," said West, who owns rental property near the vacant house. "The bigger the problem, the more expensive to fix."
West was named Monday to the city's new residential housing board, along with city planner Matt Winters, code enforcement officer James Sisk, real estate agent Rhenda Hutchison and council representative Ron Black. A date for the first meeting of this board was not available at press time.
Supporters believe the board could help generate ideas for how to clean up areas of the city.
Mayor Susan McVey admitted Monday, there is a gap somewhere in the city's system, and promised to follow the situation on Gardner Street.
The city may need to look at assigning oversight of the code enforcement department to the city planner's office, city manager Mark Massingham said.
"We are definitely committed to cleaning up properties and making changes where needed," said Massingham, who has spoken on the topic several times in recent months.
The city has a budget of $30,000-$35,000 a year for tearing down vacant properties, he added, which pays landfill costs for four to five structures.
Online city court records show the property owner has not received a violation for the condition of 1207 Gardner since at least 2013, West said. A second home is located at 1207 1/2 Gardner.
"I find that unacceptable," West said.
The court record shows property owner Terry Jerome Miles was last cited for failure to abate July 31, 2013. Online court records do not list an address for the location of the offense, and it is unclear if this citation relates specifically to 1207 Gardner.
A case was filed with the court Aug. 1, 2013, for this citation.
Miles entered a guilty plea Dec. 12, 2013, and later paid a $300 fine and $29.50 in court costs. The case was closed Feb. 26, 2014.
Resident Joyce Mitchell said she has lived in the neighborhood since 1967, and watched it go downhill. The property at 1207 was well taken care of until the owner died in 2011, and it was passed down to family members, she said.
"I don't think any of you would want to live in the same neighborhood I'm living in," Mitchell said.
The house makes residents feel unsafe and brings down property values, West said. He also told the council a nuisance posting on the house is not dated or signed by city employees. A truck at the property has two different expired license plates, from 2005 and 2013, West continued.
"It's one of the worst places I've seen," Massingham said. "In my opinion, both of these places need to be torn down."
Citizens will remember not where the city went wrong, but where it went right, if these problems and neighborhoods are fixed, said West, who has had properties of his own that have previously been cited by code enforcement and sent before the building standards board.