This is not your father's America

When is this kind of crap going to stop?

83-year-old 'penniless' after dispute over yard
Woman who preferred wild look rakes up $1.8 million in citations
An elderly woman in Tequesta, Fla., stands to lose everything in a dispute with local officials because she believed it was her constitutional right to keep her yard the way she wanted it – even if that meant refusing to trim back overgrown vegetation.
...

For five years officials levied a fine of $1,000 a day against Siegel, hoping to convince her to comply with village codes requiring a better-kept lawn. Eventually, the infraction totaled nearly $1.8 million, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

At that point the village took Siegel to court seeking judgment, and in November 2004, a circuit judge issued a ruling of foreclosure against her property and assets to satisfy the fine.

The village then sold the judgment to Silver Fidelity Trust, a Lake Worth, Fla., company, for $300,000.

Never should this have reached this stage. Shame, shame, shame on these city officials for their inability to communicate or care.