A 70-year-old man known for decades as Seminole County's “junk man” was arrested last Monday after deputies say he ran a stop sign, refused to hand over his license, and then called 911 to accuse the officer who pulled him over of carjacking him. Alan Davis now faces three charges: driving without ever having obtained a license, misuse of 911 services, and resisting an officer without violence.
According to WKMG, the incident began when a deputy report says Davis ran a stop sign near Raymond Avenue and North Street in Longwood on August 17. When the deputy asked for his license, Davis refused to provide it, per the report. He then called 911 on his cellphone and told the dispatcher he was being carjacked by an armed officer he claimed was acting in collusion with the Seminole County Sheriff's Office, according to the arrest report.
Davis has offered his own account of the encounter. He said he placed the stopping officer under citizen's arrest before dialing 911, and told WKMG he called dispatchers to have the officer picked up. Deputies say Davis resisted being removed from his vehicle and handcuffed by tensing his arms and raising his left arm out of reach, according to the arrest report.
A License Suspended Since 2010
Davis's driver's license was suspended in September 2010 for failure to pay a court financial obligation, and it was later canceled indefinitely after that suspension. The Seminole County Sheriff's Office arrested him on August 17, and he was booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility before being released on a $1,500 bond.
Under Florida Statute 365.172(14), knowingly using 911 for a purpose other than obtaining public safety assistance is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in county jail and a $1,000 fine, according to Pumphrey Law. Separately, Florida Statute 843.02 classifies resisting an officer without violence as a first-degree misdemeanor carrying the same maximum penalties, per Musca Law.
A Quarter-Century Fight Over a Junk-Filled Yard
Davis has battled Seminole County officials for more than 25 years over his junk-filled yard on Alpine Street, which has been subject to multiple code enforcement cases since 2000. The property, which is not located within a homeowner's association, has accumulated code enforcement fines that exceeded $5.4 million as of last year, county officials say. He calls the yard a first amendment-protected political protest against the county and has said he intentionally piles up junk to aggravate county officials.
“Government control over property would mean people do not have freedom,” Davis has said, describing his cluttered yard as a symbol of that freedom. He has said he has no intention of paying the code enforcement fines and has described himself as a lifelong renegade who dislikes being told what to do. His yard contains scrap metal, junked vehicles, rusted appliances, and large fiberglass sculptures of human buttocks — in February 2025, he added a new six-foot-tall sculpture of the sort to mark the 25th anniversary of his first code violation, according to WKMG.
Past Convictions and a Failed Cleanup
This is not Davis's first run-in with the criminal justice system over the property dispute. He was convicted in 2004 of a third-degree felony for violating Florida's litter law and served nearly a year in state prison as a result. Under Florida's Litter Law, F.S. 403.413, dumping litter exceeding 500 pounds elevates an offense from a misdemeanor to a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in state prison, per WKMG's earlier reporting.
Davis also pleaded no contest to a separate felony littering charge in 2017 and was sentenced to a year in county jail that same year. He spent additional time in custody after repeatedly violating supervised-release terms; during an August 2017 hearing, his former probation officer testified that Davis refused to allow home inspections, declined to pay a required $50 monthly supervisory fee, and made no effort to remove trash from his yard, according to WFTV.
In September 2015, Seminole County officials and law enforcement executed a court-sanctioned cleanup of Davis's property, removing more than 60,000 pounds of trash and junked vehicles after a special magistrate declared the yard a public safety hazard. That physical intervention did not permanently resolve the dispute, and the fines have continued to accumulate in the years since.
Why the County's Hands Are Tied
Seminole County has pursued every legal remedy available under state statutes, officials said, but their options remain limited under current state law. Davis's property is shielded from seizure by Florida's constitutional homestead exemption — Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution prohibits forced sales of primary residential homesteads to satisfy non-tax money judgments and code enforcement liens, according to a legal analysis of Florida bankruptcy law. That constitutional shield is why county officials say their ability to take further action remains restricted without changes to state law, even with millions of dollars in fines outstanding.
It's a pattern that dates back even further than the Alpine Street saga. In 1992, Davis received a $30,000 legal settlement from Orange County after code enforcement inspectors took unauthorized photos of a small airplane he was building in his carport, a dispute that predates his move to the property outside Altamonte Springs where, national news coverage in 2002 noted, neighbors first grew angry over his display of half-built replica airplanes in the front yard. Through it all, Davis has kept his job as a truck mechanic, a position he first secured through a prison work-release program during his mid-2000s state prison sentence.
Whether prosecutors will seek supervised-release enhancements tied to Davis's prior probation violations, or whether the county will move for another court-mandated cleanup of the property, remains unresolved as the new charges make their way through the courts.
