Well, he probably can get his $125k investment back when he sells the land.
But, this is similar to a case where a military vet bought a lot and put in a trailer without checking the city codes. The city codes had been put in place to clear out a bad section of the town, which is where the lot was. If he had simply checked the codes before proceeding, he could have saved himself a lot of headache.
For this guy, he should have gotten the temporary building permit, before turning his front yard into a trash pile. I bet the trash was more of the issue than the RV and the shipping container.
You're right, he should be able to get that back. And that's not a bad amount to start again with. He's not without responsibility here.
If you give it more than a glance, the trash pile doesn't look that bad. Propane tank is perfectly normal. 4 lawn chairs aren't a big deal. Three totes, a metal appliance, and some wood stuff is the rest. That seems like a good reason to have a shipping container. But plenty of details I don't know. I just don't like the solution to this problem they are using.
Thanks for that perspective.