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Garbage workers took her son's ramp, she says, and now she wants a call back and reimbursement from the city.
By ANNE LINDBERG
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 2, 2001
PINELLAS PARK -- Mary Mondejar had the perfect presents for her son Zac's 13th birthday -- a new skateboard and a ramp for practicing maneuvers.
A week later, the ramp was gone from Mondejar's driveway. A garbage truck ate it.
Now Mondejar wants the city to replace the ramp, which cost $150, but she can't get Pinellas Park officials to return her calls.
"They think I'll just go away," Mondejar said. "I'm getting madder by the minute."
City Manager Jerry Mudd said Tuesday is the first he had heard of Mondejar's complaint. He promised to call her and check into the situation. Until then, he said, it's unclear if the city will reimburse her for the loss.
On March 24, Mondejar put her garbage cans at the end of her drive, as usual. When the garbage was collected, the workers apparently took Zac's ramp, which was sitting farther up the driveway.
Zac was home ill that day. Had the workers knocked on the door, he could have told them to leave the ramp, his mother said. During a garbage pickup earlier in the week, the ramp had been left alone. Mondejar didn't understand why it was taken the second time. It was not an odd object, she said. Other Pinellas Park kids have them.
"I can't believe these guys would throw that in the garbage and let the machine gobble it up," Mondejar said. "One man couldn't even lift it. ... It was obviously new."
Mondejar called the city and spoke to someone named "Michael," who said, "We've never had this happen before."
Michael promised to call her back but never did. Mondejar wrote a letter to the city on April 3, asking for a return call and reimbursement. She heard nothing.
"I thought it was really rude that they didn't respond to me," she said. "Just to not even call me back, that's what's made me so mad, really."