Semmes Junkman Gets Nat'l Attention

A national cable show is coming to the rescue of a man very familiar to News 5 viewers.

Paul Hamman owns the county's junkiest property on Redstone Drive East in Semmes. We've followed Hamman's story for two years including the fact that he was charged with criminal littering and thrown in jail for all that junk in January.

After seeing our stories, a Seattle production crew called Screaming Flea Productions contacted us about getting Hamman some help. This week, they showed up in South Alabama and started the big job. They brought in a therapist for Hamman and workers to load up dozens of trucks and containers.

The crew is also filming the effort as part of a show running this summer about hoarding.

Matt Paxton is part of the crew and has a company called Clutter Cleaner. "He's just a regular guy who got in over his head. If he was an alcoholic and this was all beer, people would be trying to help him. This is just uglier and weirder because it's junk."

The help comes just in time for Hamman. He has another court appearance on his criminal littering case next Tuesday.

Hamman will keep most of the money from the scrap metal sales so he's pretty happy about that. The hoarding documentary will air on a popular channel this summer but we can't tell you the name until they start promoting the show.