
An Arizona man was arrested after being found living in a pile of trash in a national park. Mark Aaron Gatz, 65, was taken into custody on June 25 after his eight-year-long stay in the Tonto National Forest with a half-ton barricade of trash as his shelter. “I was flabbergasted by the amount of debris in the area,” an officer said in several federal court filings following the incident. He also said it was “possibly one of the worst residential cases he has seen.” After the forest’s officers received complaints about “several large structures” and “several years’ worth of trash... scattered throughout the forest of roughly an acre,” as detailed in a June 29 citation, they spotted the Arizona man. Gatz, who had six outstanding arrest warrants, and his immeasurable pile of trash were located in a popular area for visitors to mountain bike, off-road, and hike. In addition to his previous criminal record, he allegedly violated several laws, including “Camping for a Period Longer than Allowed by Order,” “Taking Possession/Living on Forest Grounds,” and “Damaging any Natural Feature or other Property of the United States.” Gatz is currently detained as a potential flight risk.
















