DES MOINES, Iowa – It’s a 65-acre piece of green splendor with a persistent problem.

“We came out every night after work, picked up the trash, hauled it back to the car and did it all again.”

Gerri Beeler-Schmitt and her husband have been dealing with garbage for decades. But recently it has become more of an issue.

“And indeed, a homeless couple and their dog lived on the property.”

The neighbors complained to the city, as they had done before. But this time Gerri hesitated.

“We are aware of the fact that these people have no place to go. There is no accommodation for them. And certainly not for a couple and their dog.”

The city only needed a search on Google Earth to spot the problem and notified Beeler-Schmitt. “Either you vacate the property by June or we will do it.”

“So we had to make a decision: Either we call the police and have them pick her up – along with her dog, knowing that they’ll never get their dog back – or we violate the city’s schedule. And that’s exactly what we decided to do.”

Their decision resulted in a $1,100 bill from the city.

City Manager Scott Sanders did not appear on camera, but told us in a statement that “the owner was given ample time to comply. This is the third cleanup at this location in the last 12 months.”

City Councilman Joe Gatto said he was hearing about the situation for the first time and was more understanding.

“It was an opportunity that we undoubtedly could have made better use of.”

While homelessness is a major problem in the city, this was probably not the case for this couple in the woods.

“I will speak to the staff about this special situation because normally this does not happen,” Gatto said.

Everyone here agrees that this will happen again soon. And then what?

“We are just putting the problem off. It will continue to be a problem for us,” said Gerri.