Comcast removes spools in Cape Coral after a year

Neighbors are relieved, and a realtor is happy after Comcast removed their spools from an empty Cape Coral lot.

The spools, which weigh several hundred pounds, got in the way of several things: the beauty of the neighborhood and the sale of the land.

Eleven days ago, Markus Hartwich, a realtor for Gulf Gateway Realty, put a new property on the market. It’s an empty lot in a nice neighborhood in Cape Coral.

“I came out here to take pictures to list the property. And then I came across these huge spools of wires and didn’t really know what to do with it. I mean, it was right in the middle of the property,” Hartwich said.

Comcast subcontractors repaired a vacation rental home on SW 26th Ct following Hurricane Ian and then dumped the leftover equipment on a vacant property. It was sitting there for over a year.

The property is owned by a family in Spain who had no idea about this issue.

After Hartwich exhausted all his options, he contacted WINK News.

“I thought I have to reach out to someone who can talk about this, you know, to make it happen,” Hartwich said.

Neighbors who spoke to WINK News Reporter Olivia Jean said they also exhausted their options. They reached out to Comcast, but Comcast has no record of the interaction and is investigating where the claims actually went.

“It’s just falling through the cracks as far as somebody taking ownership to actually remove it,” Tim Bethel, a neighbor of the property said.

A code enforcement officer has had a case open for over a year about the spools. Neighbors were met with dead end after dead end.

“I think one it’s an eyesore for the community. And I think too, if I owned a lot and I was trying to sell it that it would be especially with so many lots on the market right now I would probably choose a lot that didn’t have like debris on it,” Bethel said.

On Monday, WINK News visited the property to check out the spools and contacted Comcast. Once Comcast got word from WINK News about the spools, within hours, they investigated and claimed the stools were theirs.

“I think for my clients, and for the whole neighborhood, it would just be the right thing to do for Comcast to pick it up,” Hartwich said.

Comcast picked up the spools on Tuesday.

It took a few hours as crews had to wait for additional crews and equipment, but the spools are now gone. A few neighbors watched as several trucks and hands lugged the heavy equipment into a truck.

The entire removal process was confusing to all.

“I’ve heard that you can’t sell it because it doesn’t technically belong to the person that owns the lots. But then I’ve also heard that since it was abandoned on the lot it’s the owner’s responsibility to do something with it,” Bethel said.

“It’s not nice because, you know, we tried to market the property, and we shoot pictures from all different angles, you know, and then if you have these materials sitting around, you know, a buyer was coming in, they may ask the question, okay, when I buy this property, am I supposed to take care of it?” Hartwich said.

After a year, the property is ready to sell, and this Cape Coral neighborhood has been restored.

Comcast gave WINK News the following statement:

“We want to thank WINK News and your viewers for alerting us. After we were notified, we determined the equipment was likely left behind during Hurricane Ian restoration efforts. To get Southwest Florida back online as quickly as possible following the storm, we engaged with several business partners to rebuild our network. It was a tremendous undertaking with multiple contractors. It appears some of the equipment wasn’t hauled away following the construction. We apologize to the community and moving forward, we’ll communicate our expectations around cleanup to our business partners in Cape Coral.”