Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch to be auctioned off to the highest bidder

February 27th, 2008 by Scott Marks

Q: What did Emmanuel Lewis say to the hovering helicopter pilot?
A: NEVER LAND!!!

Unless Jacko can come up with the $24,525,906.61 he still owes on the Neverland Ranch, the gloved one’s Pleasure Island will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The Santa Maria Times has learned that Financial Title Co. filed the notice of trustee’s sale with Santa Barbara County Superior Court, setting the auction date for March 19.

The Fox News website said a five-page notice of trustees sale stated that Jackson was “in default of a deed of trust” and “Unless you take action to protect your property it may be sold at a public sale.”

In 2006 authorities ordered the property to be boarded up and fined Jackson for failing to pay his 70 employees or maintain proper insurance. The pop superstar has not lived in the Ranch since 2005 when he was acquitted of all charges after being put on trial over allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior towards young boys.

Telegraph.co.uk noted, “At his trial, defence lawyers described Neverland as a fantasy-land where children from underprivileged areas would spend the day playing as Jackson did his creative thinking from atop a tree.”

When Jackson acquired the approximately 3,000 acre estate in 1987 he quickly installed a private amusement park complete with a Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, spider, sea dragon, wave swinger, super slide, dragon wagon kiddie roller coaster, bumper cars and the pop star’s favorite attraction, his zipper. Neverland also housed a well-stocked and fully operational zoo. All of the ranch’s furnishings and assorted fairground items would also be put on the auction block.

In addition to acting as an oasis for children, the Neverland Ranch also hosted numerous celebrity parties including the storybook wedding of Liz Taylor and Larry Fortensky.

Who would have guessed that Michael Jackson would belong to the more than 1 percent of US households that were in some stage of foreclosure during 2007? Certainly not Michu or Bubbles the Chimp.