Former Kansas City Chiefs star Tony Richardson’s abandoned Overland Park home has been sold for $278,000, as per country records. The house was in the worst condition with rotted wood, water damaged, and soffits collapsed under the weight of raccoon faeces. The property went into tax foreclosure and was sold in July at a county auction.

T-Rich, the former Chiefs fullback, is an 11-season player from 1995 to 2005 and a member of the team’s Hall of Fame. The sports star had failed to pay $48,000, at least seven years’ worth of property taxes and fines.

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“The soffit above the front porch has collapsed for the third time because of the amount of faeces from the wildlife that’s occupied the attic,” said Sheila Rodriguez, a board member with the Lexington Park Home Owners Association told The Kansas City Star. “There’s an entire family, an extended family, of the largest raccoons you’ve ever seen. They’re living large.” “The last time it collapsed, the faeces was about — well, I’m 5 foot 2 — it was about up to my thigh. That might give you a mental image of what the interior might look like,” she added.

The city of Overland Park and the neighbours have worked to keep the yard from overgrowing. Beams have been added to an elevated deck so it wouldn’t crash to the ground.

“It’s’ easily got $150,000 worth of repairs,” said Rodriguez. “It’s got to have black mold. I mean, it’s got to be riddled with it.”

The home has been sold to Miluska Del Pozo of Leawood, according to Johnson County officials. He has a business, Treerange Properties LLC, registered with the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office.

“After I purchased it, I told my family — my husband, my brothers — and my husband came over and said, ‘Do you know what you bought? Look at this.‘”

He showed her the photos from the private neighbourhood Facebook page.

“I was like, oh, my gosh!”

“I know I paid a lot. More than I should,” she said. “At the same time, people (bidders) kept pushing up, pushing up on that house. … I was surprised to see it on the tax sale, to be honest.”

She, however, sees it as a good investment, not far from major companies, highways, schools and hospitals.