North Houston resident tries to make point with signs

(10/08/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- A homeowner living near a METRO bus stop says he is fed up with bus riders and people loitering near his yard. And now, he is getting his point across loud and clear.

When Bryan Klein and his wife bought their home at North Shepherd near 43rd in north Houston, they were prepared for the traffic, the bus stop and even the trash. But nothing could compare them, Bryan says, for what has become their reality.

"My wife finds condoms, needles, I had feces in the bushes," he said.

Add to that, he says, prostitution and drugs. And all is right in front of his house. Finally after three years, Bryan says he's reached his limit.

"The only way I can protect myself is to inflame my neighbors," he told us.

More than a dozen signs are doing just that. To the litter bugs, there's a sign that says 'Don't litter.' To the thieves, there's a sign that says 'Don't steal plants or flowers.' And there's even a sign that reads, 'Don't defecate in shrubs.'

They line his property and are not sitting well with his homeowner's association.

"I've had a quite a few complaints," said Ed De Alba with the Garden Oaks Maintenance Organization.

Bryan says he's just desperate. The city will tag him for putting up barbed wire to keep people out, but won't ticket those who are causing problems. His neighbors call the signs eye sores. And De Alba believes Bryan and his wife should have known what they were getting themselves into.

"It's not a secret that there's a METRO bus station right on the street there," he said. "It was no secret that there is a lot of traffic on Shepherd. Other people in the neigbhborhood were looking at that house also and chose to buy a different location because they knew what kind of issues they were going to deal with."

Garden Oaks does have deed restrictions, which the signs violate. The homeowners association plans to ask Bryan to remove them. He says he will comply, but says he'll continue to find ways to push the limit until city officials hear his cries for help.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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