Prince Mongo wins dispute over wacky yard decor

May 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla.

The man with the moniker of Prince Mongo and the oddball yard that annoyed county officials and neighbors ended his code enforcement dispute Wednesday.

But he’s not off the hook yet.

The Volusia County (Fla.) sheriff’s office recently filed a complaint against the Memphis, Tenn., man, whose real name is Robert Hodges, for displaying five paintings of nude women in his front yard — his latest protest against efforts to tone down his outdoor decor.

County officials dropped most of the code-violation complaints and reduced his fine to $475 for having a junkyard at his beachside home south of Daytona Beach.

The nude portraits were gone, but his home still features an eye-jarring, multicolored paint scheme and large sand dunes with plastic Santas and newly planted sea oats.

The yard also contains a toilet, a bicycle and several hockey sticks.

Missing, though, were the crisscrossing clotheslines of extra-large boxer shorts and bras. Instead, an American flag hangs.

The wooden deck pieces, which originally tripped the first code violation, are neatly piled in the backyard.

Hodges’ home wasn’t actually a junkyard, which is usually a salvage business with scrap metal and car parts, said his attorney, Eric Latinsky.

Most of what was in the yard was legal, even the hanging underwear, and the items that didn’t meet county regulations would have been fixed sooner had the county sent notice to the right mailing address, he said.

Hodges was away when the code violations were filed, he said.

“It was really and truly a misunderstanding,” Latinsky said.

But Hodges was still fuming about the $475 fine.

“I don’t think this was fair,” he said.

Hodges, who claims to be a 333-year-old alien from the planet Zambodia, has had a colorful history as a perennial candidate for Memphis mayor, a former pizza shop and nightclub owner and a homeowner infamous for odd yard decorations at his homes in Memphis and his former mansion in Fort Lauderdale.