A FURIOUS homeowner was hit with more than $200,000 in fines – before the city showed up and took away “priceless” items.

Richard Gillich got into an argument with authorities more than a year ago when a cleanup crew hauled away 12 dumpsters and five dump trucks of debris from his property.

Authorities took 12 dumpsters of trash from a property in Danbury, ConnecticutCredit: Google Maps

The homeowner was fined more than $200kCredit: Getty

The veterinary chiropractor from Danbury, Connecticut, has since racked up $204k in court-ordered fines in the ongoing blight fight with the city, 20 miles northwest of Bridgeport.

Gillich was found to be in contempt of a 2017 court order for failing to comply and for nonpayment of outstanding fines in August this year, according to court documents.

That ruling authorized another city cleanup, provided city leaders gave Gillich 30 days’ notice to clean up his blighted property.

The ruling also gives the city authority to place a lien on the home, potentially foreclosing on it.

In 2023, Gillich told Hearst Connecticut Media in an interview that the cleanup was an invasion of his property.

He slammed the cleanup crews for throwing away his precious 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥hood belongings, including some rare Tonka trucks.

“I’m a grown man and I had to beg them not to throw away things that have had sentimental value to me for 60 years,” he said at the time.

But Shawn Stillman, coordinator of Danbury’s Unified Neighborhood Inspection Team (UNIT), which carried out the cleanup, accused Gillich of letting his property fall “by the wayside.”

Gillich was held for an hour during an October court proceeding, before agreeing to repayments of his enormous fines.

But under the agreed $100-a-month repayment scheme, it would take him 170 years to pay off the current fine.

Stillman said Gillich hadn’t mowed his grass and had left garbage and other materials littered across his property.

Gillich was ordered to maintain his property in the wake of 2023’s court order.

But Stillman said he had failed to honor that and repay the city, and so was found in contempt of a court order and brought back to court.

Now, a year on, Stillman said Gillich is “living in a world of his own in regards to local responsibility.

“And as a result, the property has fallen by the wayside,” he added. “It has not been maintained.”

Stillman said a second enforced UNIT cleanup as a short-term fix that would be a waste of city resources and wouldn’t “solve the long-term problem.”

Now the dispute over the property has reached as high as Danbury’s Mayor Roberto Alves.

He said his office is looking into strengthening local ordinances to address blight issues, which will then be introduced to the City Council for action.

The city is also exploring tougher legal solutions, such as foreclosing on liens.

“We are starting the preliminary conversations on how we can stiffen that up so we can make it easier to enforce, and not have anything take a generation-plus,” Mayor Alves told Danbury-based outlet The News-Times.

But even if the city does pursue a lien foreclose on Gillich’s home, Stillman said the purpose would be to obtain his compliance with repaying the owed fines.

“We’re just looking for and expecting compliance, and respect for the neighborhood and fellow neighbors,” Stillman said.

The U.S. Sun has approached Danbury authorities for comment.