South Knoxville community investigating suspicious trash bags left on Pickens Gap Rd

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The Pickens Gap Road community is rallying together to find the person responsible for dumping mysterious bags of trash in their area.

“Enough is enough it stops now, and I believe that, enough is enough we’re not doing it anymore,” said a resident of the area, Jackie Hardin.

For nearly three months, residents in the Pickens Gap area have documented trash left in the middle of the road. So far, Hardin said they have found over 20 bags.

“And it’s occurring on a regular basis,” she said. “As to what’s in these ‘mystery bags’ that we call them, you know it looks like vomit or human waste of some kind, it has a terrible odor, it’s disgusting to look at, it’s something you wouldn’t want in your neighborhood, or in your driveway, you know spreading disease or lord knows what.”

People in the community, like Jackie Hardin, and Jeremiah Jordan, are trying to find the culprit through this documentation on Facebook groups.

“It seems like they’ve actually did more this past week than they have over the course of the last couple of months,” said Jordan.

Through Facebook groups like ‘South Knoxville Speaks Out,’ and ‘Tarklin Valley Speaks Out!!!’ residents have come together to track the date, time, and location the bags are found, hoping to narrow down a time frame and find who is doing it.

“They’ve come down my little dead-end road and threw it out,” said Jordan, “and when they throw it out it spans both lanes, like it’s not just, you know what I’m saying, you have to hit it, I mean there is no way around it.”

Despite getting the mystery liquid on their cars, Hardin and Jordan said they are afraid of the trash bags causing crashes, harming the people in the community, or polluting their environment.

Hardin has also had multiple bags tossed in front of her home, and lawn.

“We just want it to stop,” she said, “you know we don’t want it to move to another neighborhood, we don’t want anyone else to go through this, you know, we don’t want anyone to get sick, or hurt or killed because of this, we don’t want our little stream polluted with lord knows what, you know?”

She said she would continue to work with Knox County and her community to help find more information. According to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, there is an ongoing investigation into these bags.

Hardin is also asking if you have seen a bag in or around Pickens Gap Road to post it to either Facebook group with the date, time, and location it was found.

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