Broken cars towed from cluttered Schaumburg home

A Schaumburg man found guilty this month of keeping the inside and outside of his house excessively cluttered agreed Tuesday to have the three non-operational vehicles in his driveway towed away.

Having received a court order Friday to forcibly clean up John Wuerffel's property on the 1400 block of Hampton Lane, village officials are now within their rights to remove any vehicles which are neither operational or licensed.

The 62-year-old Wuerffel said Friday he would meet the village's requirements for his vehicles by 11 a.m. Tuesday. But when officials arrived at the deadline, the cars still sat in the driveway, unable to run.

Wuerffel asked for two more hours, and in that time arranged for the vehicles to be towed.

"He says he wants to bring them back, but he says he knows they can't come back until they're legal and operable," Schaumburg Public Health Officer Mary Passaglia said.

There was less clutter in Wuerffel's backyard Tuesday, but officials plan to return Thursday to check on progress both inside and outside the house to determine if and when to exercise their court order.

Wuerffel, who said he suffers from poor health and has been unemployed for six years, filled the inside and outside of his home with recyclable items whose sale he said is his only source of income.

He gained national attention this summer when was locked out of the house he still legally owned while it was in foreclosure proceedings. Representatives of mortgage manager HSBC Corp. said the house was locked to protect it when they believed it had been abandoned. They said Wuerffel never contacted them to say he'd returned and was living out of one of the cars in the driveway.

Though HSBC has since unlocked the house, Wuerffel still can't live in it due to its clutter and the fact that its utilities are shut off for nonpayment.

Wuerffel plans to stay at suburban homeless shelters when they reopen Friday.