Every once in a while, collectors will steal the spotlight from the American Pickers cohosts. Perhaps the most memorable of these icons is a collector that goes by Prince Mongo.
The American Pickers collector isn’t a prince in the traditional sense. In fact, when he appeared on the show in 2014, he described his “mission” and the origin of his royalty.
“I’m here on a mission to save Earthlings, and I will in due time,” he said on a past episode of American Pickers. “The Earth is self-destructing and when the time comes I will save a few people and take them with me. People don’t realize how much I’ve already saved them from. I saved them from the earthquake, tornadoes, hurricanes. I’ve used my energies to divert those things.”
An alien prince or not, Prince Mongo wasn’t the most popular among his neighbors. According to Looper, the self-claimed 333-year-old alien from planet Zambodia tends to decorate his yard with traffic cones and other random items which often warranted a response from his neighbors and the home owner’s association.
‘American Pickers’ Collector Protests with Shocking Front Yard Decor
And the antics didn’t end there. After a building inspector ordered him to dismantle a wooden deck he was building in 2010, the former American Pickers guest protested by setting up several clotheslines full of underwear. He also reportedly entertained disruptive guests quite often. Eventually, the tension between Prince Mongo and his neighbors became so bad that they felt they couldn’t walk around the neighborhood without running into their neighbor’s odd actitivities.
“It starts getting to the point when folks cannot live their lives,” one representative of local homeowners shared. “Folks had been able to get out and walk around the block and have a beautiful loving community here. They are now afraid to come out of their homes.”
But the American Pickers guest didn’t seem too concerned about the public’s response.
“I don’t care how they’re disturbed,” Prince Mongo said. “I’m disturbed that they have ganged up against me.”
Not surprisingly, Prince Mongo’s trouble didn’t end with his HOA violations. In the 90s, he acquired a castle-like structure called Ashlar Hall which he renamed “The Castle.” Apparently, he had turned the place into a nightclub but didn’t have the proper permits for it. In response, the club’s owner argued that the dancing was actually just “exercising,” but the courts rejected this defense and revoked his beer license.
This was probably for the best, anyway. Already, the American Pickers alien prince had racked up an alarming amount of citations for underage drinking, public disruptions and nudity. Not to mention, at a previous club he owned, two inebriated teenage drivers got into a fatal motorcycle crash after leaving Prince Mongo’s establishment.
Needless to say, the collector was one of the most controversial to ever appear on American Pickers.
