[music playing]
PAUL: My name is Paul Hammond.
I'm 56 years old.
My junkied office.
I've been collecting junk for quite a while.
I've got a little bit of everything here.
Bought a few vehicles, a lot of refrigerators,
stoves, used appliances, some scrap metal stuff
I've collected over the years.
[music playing]
I'm Paul Hammond, Jr., I'm Paul's son.
When you first pull up to the yard,
you kind of round a corner.
And when you get there, you start
seeing his junk collection.
I mean, that's the best way to put it on that aspect.
PAUL: I guess hoarding is one of the definitions of what I do.
My intentions were to--
most of it to scrap metals to haul it off
and make a little bit of money.
Part of my problem is, when I did start collecting stuff,
I didn't want to get rid of it.
And it's gotten overwhelming to the point
that sometimes it's difficult to think about it.
[music playing]
The court system got involved a couple of years ago.
PAUL, JR.: There's two people in the neighborhood
that actually started it.
And I know who they are.
One of them-- old lady cross street.
They have nothing but time on their hands.
I'm Mary Alice Adams.
I live across the street from Paul.
Just an eye sore to the neighborhood.
Everybody in the neighborhood would
like to see it cleaned up.
NEIGHBOR: And I've watched this for the last year
or two several years, just growing
to nothing but a junkyard.
And I don't think this subdivision was laid
out to have junkyards in it.
PAUL, JR.: Basically, they called
him repeatedly to actually get the county on his butt.
Finally, some commissioner took notice,
and now, they're doing something about it.
And I'm glad they are.
And he didn't care.
That was his attitude.
When I asked him what he was doing,
he says, this is my property.
I do what I want to with it.
And I said, well, I don't think the law works that way,
but we'll see.
I see my grandkids just about every day.
I usually go over there in the afternoons.
PAUL, JR.: Usually, Sundays, he grabs one or two of my kids,
and he goes out dumpster-hopping.
It's something he can do with the kids.
They enjoy it.
They enjoy helping your Grandpa do anything they can.
Thank you, buddy.
I enjoy being with them.
Yup, yup.
Two snacks?
My grandkids are--
[chatter]
Been about the only thing I really
look forward to do every day the last few years.
Pretty much rest of everything else I do
has become a problem in my life.
[music playing]
MATT: My name is Matt Paxton.
I'm the owner of Clutter Cleaner.
We are a company that specializes
in homes that have been affected by hoarding,
addiction, and grief.
Good morning. - 'Morning.
Thank you.
Thank you guys for coming.
We got a lot of work to do today.
You guys are picking up the trash.
If there's any scrap metal, leave it.
We got three days to do it.
The house way over there, that's where we're going.
All right, let's do it.
All right.
Got about four different crews all around the yard,
getting four different corners.
They're going to walk slowly towards the house
as they pick trash out from all the scrap metal.
Our main concerns will be sheer volume.
There's just a lot a lot of work to do with not
a whole lot of time to do it.
We will watch some anxiety levels of Paul Sr. He's going
to get nervous throughout the day,
so we'll make sure he maintains control
throughout the entire process.
Pace yourself today. That's very important.
You got to pace it.
I mean, we're all wheezing already.
We got one load.
We've probably got to do four more loads of this today.
But we got to pace ourselves.
[panting]
PAUL: I'm not as young as I used to be.
One good hard day's work-- it takes me two to recuperate.
And that's definitely a problem-- just
trying to get it done quick.
Well, we got a couple of plastic boxes and stuff,
but that's usable.
MATT: Yeah, but we got to let it go, man.
Is it usable?
Yes.
Do we have time to keep it?
No.
PAUL: I walked away from that dumpster.
MATT: Yeah.
Why did you do that?
Why did you decide to just walk away?
Need to.
Don't want to.
Need to. It's hard.
Good job.
MATT: It was even lower than I thought it was going to be.
Well, 60's not unreasonable.
- No, he wanted 10. - Huh?
- I said, no, thanks. - Penny a pound.
Penny a pound.
That damn low?
MATT: Problem with Paul here now is
he has been offered a pretty, in his mind, a bad offer.
He is really, really upset.
I ain't giving my stuff away.
I ain't going to do it.
I can't.
But--
I'll fight with [bleep] downtown.
He can play his game if he wants to.
You know I disagree with that.
- I'm not giving my stuff away. - Well, I understand that.
I can't.
MATT: I know you can't, and I understand that.
PAUL: The company that knows the judge, they give me
half a cent a pound, where I can get 4 and 1/2 cents a pound
if I do it myself.
Scrap metal's worth nothing right now,
but what the company is offering is even less than nothing.
Almost.
MATT: He is shell-shocked.
He's very upset.
He really admitted this morning that the only reason
he keeps this stuff is for his grandkids
and for their life savings.
And so that's what he's going through mentally.
It's not that he's greedy and wants the money.
He's going through, holy cow, I can't
support my four grandkids.
[music playing]
Grandpa?
Tie your shoes, sweetie.
It's hard to explain.
MATT: We went as far as we could on the push.
Now, it's just support.
Straight-up support.
We're going to do whatever he needs to do.
We're going to hustle.
I'm concerned about their energy level and their ability
to continue to work.
We also have kind of subpar equipment.
You'll see behind me.
It may or may not work.
We're not going to know till tomorrow night
if he's going to jail or not.
It's going to be a long day.
It's just the paperwork to prove
that the cars aren't stolen--
is what this is.
Hopefully, today, I get at least the cars to stop
by the road out of here.
Maybe a couple more.
[music playing]
MATT: All of this stuff here can go, right?
Into the scrap?
That's aluminum and copper.
That little bit right there is worth more than a couple
of cars.
The aluminum.
We can't leave it there over the weekend.
It has to go.
Just thinking it needs to go with the cars and scrap metal.
It can't.
I mean, it's worth 10 times what the other stuff is.
So it's going to have to go in the back somewhere.
In maybe six months, price comes up, I'll even get more for it.
MATT: This is very valuable.
All this copper right here is extremely valuable.
But if you're in jail, it's not valuable.
We got to fill it by 3:30 regardless, man.
If we don't fill it, they're taking it empty.
We don't make no money.
That's why I wanted those refrigerators in there.
That's fine.
But we need you helping us here, man, getting this stuff in.
Ah!
[music playing]
We had a day.
And look how much we still got to do.
I mean, thing is, this is--
like, if they come in today, this isn't going to pass.
I'm not trying to be a jerk.
I'm just trying to show the reality of what time we're at.
- Yeah. - We're one day.
If we get to the house, you're out of the clear.
We're not to the house.
Rest of it's metal, just about.
Well, I guess what I'm saying is,
we've got to start throwing metal away now.
Because if we don't clear this space out,
you're going to jail.
It's the reality.
I wish you'd lose that term.
I can't help it.
I know, I know it sucks.
That's my alternative, but--
I know.
I don't want to keep hearing it.
Well, you have to hear it, because you haven't--
I don't think you realize it yet.
I know. I've been there.
MATT: I know, but--
I know that judge better than you do.
Yes, you do.
PAUL: I know exactly what he's going to say,
and it ain't going to matter if I
got the whole damn lot cleaned.
He's still going to be an ass.
Why should I even come back tomorrow then?
It's just a waste of time, man.
He's not going to let it go, and he's going to jail.
It's Thursday afternoon, and he's going to jail.
He's not-- I mean, he doesn't get it.
He's on his own now.
Go on his decisions, and he'll end up in jail.
It's really a shame.
It doesn't seem to bother you, the timeline.
It does and it doesn't.
I mean, yeah, I understand there is a timeline,
and I know the consequence.
Might out of the way.
MATT: I mean, you've done a great job, an amazing job.
We're going to be clean to here today.
Yeah.
MATT: Your grandkids are going to run in this yard
this weekend.
- Yep. - That's kind of cool.
That's it.
Is that it right there?
I like it.
That's a good enough reason to me.
You were here, what?
I was here Tuesday.
Three days ago, four days ago, they were how many, 17 cars?
Something like that.
It was full out here.
[music playing]
I mean, yesterday, you couldn't see the fence yesterday.
No, I didn't know there was a fence back there.
Well, and there all the tires.
Gone.
So this whole yard will be open.
Again, it's a start. - Right.
We know it's not a finish.
Right.
And that's what the judge wants to see-- is serious effort.
But yeah, before this is all said and done, you know,
this will have to be cleaned up.
PAUL: She wasn't quite as happy as I expected,
but it's a lot better than I expected.
This isn't done yet.
Yeah.
PAUL: I hope this--
that five days he did was all the jail
time he'll ever have to serve.
MATT: Paul is an awesome guy, man,
and he did everything and more that I asked him to do.
I couldn't have done it without him.
I mean, he pushed me a couple of times, most of it I needed.
[chatter]
That's what it's all about.
When it's all over with, they're going to be what's left.
MATT: This is what Paul wants.
He wants to have a place for his grandkids to play.
This is why Paul has collected all of this stuff.
In his mind, it was savings for his grandkids.
PAUL: It'll be great when it's done completely.
I don't have to worry about it anymore.