LENOIR CITY, Tenn. — Authorities arrived at a home in Lenoir City at around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, bringing boards of wood and an order to close the home. They emptied out the home and kicked out the homeowner, allowing him to grab his things before leaving.
Police said they responded to more than 30 calls for help at the address over the last 2 years. According to the 9th Judicial Drug Task Force, those calls included incidents involving thefts, drugs, assaults, wanted people and a stabbing.
They said this has been "a constant drain on first responders to handle the illegal activity occurring at the nuisance property."
"The nuisance property has become a haven for drug use and illegal activity that needs to be remedied," they said. "And after repeated conversations with the property owner regarding the possibilities of the courts declaring this property a nuisance, the activity has not stopped, and seems to have increased."
"This is a heroin house, for sure," Lenior City Chief of Police Don White said.
He said closing the house is a way to try and reduce the number of illegal drugs available in East Tennessee. Since January 2022, authorities said the task force found around 15,000 grams of methamphetamine and over 4,050 grams of heroin and fentanyl across the area.
The house was seized and boarded up in 2011, White said, and around 11 years later police were back to do it again. According to authorities, it can take months to build a case and collect enough evidence to show a judge that they need to close down a home for being a "nuisance to society."
"This is something that is very much, for Attorney General Johnson and our office, a method of last resort," said Jason Collver, the Assistant District Attorney. "This is not something where we're going and boarding up people's houses,"
He said in May a person who they believed to have been using narcotics tried to break into a neighbor's home. The homeowner of that house shot the person through the door, and he said the incident was associated with the now-closed home.
"There was a lot of illegal activity here," said Collver. "It's certainly been a property of interest for a while."
Bruce Jenkins was the homeowner and spent Tuesday packing up his belongings as police boarded up his home.
"Watch out, the same thing can happen to you," he said.
However, authorities said it was a necessary step so the neighborhood would stay peaceful. Nobody is allowed in the home now, and a court hearing is set for June 27 to decide if the injunction is permanent.