KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- An officer investigating a light in an abandoned house stumbled across a methamphetamine lab early Thursday morning.

KMBC's Bev Chapman reported that the overnight patrol officer saw an open door at 4802 Parkview Ave., and decided to check it out. Police said evidence of a meth lab was left in the house.

A hazardous material crew suited up in head-to-toe protective gear to clean up the mess, including bottles, pipes and other meth materials.

"People always said it looked like a park until that mess moved in," complained a neighbor, who asked not to be identified.

She said the houses are part of a shell game -- people moving from one abandoned property to the next to make meth. The neighbor said the people were burying drugs in the back yard.

"They had a U-Haul buried in the ground there where they were storing it all," the neighbor said.

City code enforcers said they've been fighting this property in court for some time, and that it can take six to eight months to get things moving on a demolition, if at all.

Police said no one was in the house and no one is in custody.