Purple-Haired Grandma Ordered To Stop Living With The Raccoons

Have you ever decided to do something as radical as coloring your hair a vibrant shade of blue or, let's say, purple? How about feeding the local animals, such as squirrels and raccoons, that everyone says are wild and filled with rabbis? Probably not. Well, this purple-haired grandma did all of that and more and is now being forced to vacate her tree house.

It's not possible to make this stuff up, folks. Shawnee Chasser embraced her love for the outdoors 25 years ago by deciding to sleep in a tree. Her brother, Ray Chasser, built her first radically different home at the Earth N' Us Farm in Little Haiti during the early 90s, and the rest has been history with Shawnee living outside and embracing nature. 

Everything appeared to be going well for the purple-haired grandma, who presently lives with her raccoon in a tree on her late son's property, until someone reported Shawnee to the authorities. She blames it on one of her former guests who was upset over being booted from the property by Chasser months prior to the formal complaint being taken out. Their anger has created a whirlwind of trouble for Shawnee. 

The purple-haired grandma has paid $3,000 in citations, which includes one for illegally running a rooming house. Another ticket was for installing a pond on the property without obtaining proper permits. 

Shawnee believes that the local government's crackdown on her tree house is nothing short of a conspiracy. Officials, however, say that it's all about safety and following regulations. 

"They’re creating a campground out there," Ricardo Roig of Miami-Dade’s code enforcement division says. "You just can’t go into a residential property and start charging outsiders to come in. We’ve got neighbors who we’ve got to protect their rights also. It’s just a combination of situations that haven’t been well thought out."

One thing that Shawnee may not have considered is the notion of a hurricane sweeping her and her tree house away. Code enforcement and the county’s Unsafe Structures Board both agree that Shawnee's outdoor abode would never be able to survive a serious storm. Such is part of the reason why they are giving her three months to vacate the residence. 

It should come as no surprise that a purple-haired grandma with a raccoon as a pet isn't going down without a fight. "It says on the back that I live in a tree house," Shawnee says. "So I have to keep living in a tree house." Ha! You tell 'em, girl.