MACON, Ga. — Is it code enforcement or Bibb County Sheriff's Office's responsibility to pick up abandoned cars in the road? That's a question some people asked 13 WMAZ after a car sat outside a busy roundabout near Mercer University for months.
If you've driven through this busy roundabout outside Tattnall Square Park the past few weeks, you've probably seen a car just sitting there.
In fact, it's been there for months.
Complaints through the county's SeeClickFix app date back to late September when a neighbor posted about the abandoned car.
The complaint on September 29 says the car had been there a few weeks at that point and that its bumper was still in the road. More complaints followed that one, even into last week.
On Friday, that car was still there.
13 WMAZ reached out to county Code Enforcement and the sheriff's office for an answer on whose jurisdiction the car falls under.
JT Ricketson, director of Code Enforcement, says since it's in the street, it falls under the sheriff's office's responsibility.
In November, Code Enforcement made a visit and determined it was not in their jurisdiction and reported it to the sheriff's office.
A SeeClickFix user wrote in response to code enforcement's decision, "...Just use parking enforcement. Nobody cares which agency [has] authority over it. The county has cars towed all the time. Tow it."
On Friday, after the sheriff's office interviewed with 13 WMAZ, the vehicle was impounded.
"That is our responsibility," said Captain Wilton Collins with the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.
Collins says a deputy responded in early December but concluded the car was legal. It had valid insurance and registration, but he says the car should have been impounded sooner based on Macon-Bibb County ordinance.
Article III, Section 28-82 says no car is allowed to park in any county street for 72 hours consecutively.
"This one appears to have fallen through the cracks," Collins said. "It shouldn't have taken as long as it took."
When asked why the sheriff's office did not act sooner than now, BSO claimed they were only contacted twice. Collins also mentioned the sheriff's office being short-staffed.