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Asheville police handling a property eviction discovered 10 goats, 48 pigeons, one cat and several bottles of unidentifiable liquid that prompted them to call in a hazardous-materials team last Wednesday. The liquid may have been simply goat cheese fermenting, police acknowledged.

Police discovered the animals and liquids while evicting Gabriel and Livia Ferrari from their home at 22 Sulphur Springs Rd., near Haywood Road, for failure to pay city and county taxes and fines for city code violations.

Gabriel Ferrari lived at the property for 20 years and had frequently been cited by officials for the unpermitted animals, ramshackle vehicles, unorthodox structures and handmade signs bearing biblical phrases with which he filled his property.

While some of his West Asheville neighbors filed complaints about the goats’ smell, others who knew him as the “goat man” and often saw him working on projects in his yard viewed the colorful compound as something of a local folk-art landmark.

After his eviction, which followed the courthouse auction of his property, Ferrari went to the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office last Thursday and became agitated, police say. He went next to Asheville Police Department headquarters, where officers, forewarned by sheriff’s employees, locked down the lobby before his arrival. APD officers and Assistant City Attorney Curtis Euler met Ferrari in the building’s outer foyer, where police say Ferrari pointed a finger at Euler and said he would see him later.

Ferrari, who was staying with his wife in a homeless shelter after the eviction, was arrested Monday on a charge of trespassing when he refused to leave City Hall grounds,  police said. He had been told earlier by Buncombe County sheriff’s deputies to leave the Buncombe County Courthouse, but then came back to City Hall to attempt to speak with City Attorney Bob Oast, according to Asheville police Capt. Tim Splain, who added that Ferrari had been told in the past not to come on city property without an appointment. He was being held as of Tuesday in the Buncombe County Detention Center with bond set at $1,000.

Buncombe County Realty owner Kevin Wei, who bought the property at the auction for $155,132, won’t say what he will do with the land but confirmed that he will demolish the Ferraris’ structures, which include.a building with a tin roof painted red, white and blue labelled “The Tears Cabin,” a tall dovecote, and a row of booths labelled “Our Creator School of Surviving Skills.” After fines, taxes and fees, police say, the Ferraris will receive $122,000 for their property.