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County accused of switching property after man buys land at tax lien sale - YouTube
Channel: KOAA 5
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he bought mining land at a tax auction
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in Park County but tonight the man says
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the county quietly changed official
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documents and moved his property off
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mining territory chief investigative
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reporter Eric Ross uncovered major
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discrepancies County officials have yet
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to fully explain when people fail to pay
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their taxes and abandoned their property
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the land goes up for sale at County tax
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lien auctions Edie
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Ecklie thought he scored a good deal but
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a few years in he says County officials
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are trying to take back the property
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he's already making payments on our
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whole life is based around mineral I
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mean that's kind of what we do
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edik lee is a small business owner he
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runs this mining shop in the heart of
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Florence and has turned what some call a
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hobby into a career with prospect and we
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look for mineral and we really had high
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hopes to get up in there and maybe you
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know do something with this mine in 2015
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Ecklie purchased a parcel of land in
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Park County just off County Road 60 the
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land identified in section 24 on this
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map is potentially full of minerals a
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miners dream but now he says Park County
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officials switched his property to
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section 23 an area west of the mining
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shaft with terrain that cannot be easily
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accessed from everything that we've
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looked through and we tried to verify
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any possibility of a shaft over on 23 he
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could take days or even weeks to try to
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even locate in that type of rough
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terrain and even by helicopter would
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cost thousands of dollars to fly around
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up there and look around you know from
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Google Earth this is what the property
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looks like that Ecklie says should be
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his but this is where County officials
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say ecklie's land now sits the geography
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considerably different with this area
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containing nothing but steep rocky
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terrain with no roadways or trails all
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of our documentation all over the
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paperwork from previous owners clear
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back into the late 18-hundreds all show
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with that documentation as section 24 so
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for them to be able to say oh no it was
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a mistake and it's a mile to the west
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it's very confusing and it's got us kind
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of upset on this tax lien docq
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and treasurer's deed obtained by News
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five investigates it shows Ecklie should
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have section 24 but if you visit the
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County Tax Assessors website section 24
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has been changed to 23 in an email to
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news 5 investigates County Treasurer
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Michelle Miller said quote after
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investigating the treasurer's deed we
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found that it was simply a typo on the
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section number it should have been
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section 23 but when we asked the county
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to clarify the change in location
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between section 23 and 24 surprisingly
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we were told the county didn't know
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about the location and would have to
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look further into the historical section
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number changes and get back with us
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we're still waiting on answers it cannot
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possibly be an honest mistake the last
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part of our discussion was that
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well we'll research this further and
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we'll contact you and I gave them my
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email they've got our phone number they
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know exactly who we are and Sharon
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Ackley and they will not contact us the
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county also could not tell us who
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legally owns section 24 but in the
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course of our research we discovered a
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big corporation called Earth Energy
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Resources LLC has bought dozens of
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properties from Park County most around
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the same area Ecklie says his land
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should be on this other situation has
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got us thinking that there's something
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really shady going on up in that
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territory the treasurer told us specific
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questions about mapping would have to be
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answered by the assessor's office our
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inquiry has been forwarded to them but
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we have not yet heard back you can count
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on us to get to the bottom of this case
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and as new developments come in we'll be
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sure to pass them along to you watching
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out for you
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Eric Ross news 5 investigates Eric
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thanks as always if you have a problem
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or issue you'd like chief investigative
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reporter Eric Ross to check out call our
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tipline seven one nine two two 867 five
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or sent an email the news 5 investigates
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at koat.com
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