MADISON (WKOW) — A well-known Madison panhandler who falsely claims his house burned down has been arrested after lengthy efforts to relocate him from an East Washington Avenue median failed.

Richard J. Caucutt, 73, was arrested for violating Madison’s Median Safety Ordinance.

Central District officers say they have tried to educate Caucutt about the Median Safety Ordinance by talking with him and giving him an explanatory pamphlet.

When that didn’t work, they began citing a 73-year-old Madison man.

That didn’t work either, and now they have arrested the man who is frequently see sitting on a yard chair in the median near East Washington Ave. and N. Blair St.

He holds a sign indicating he is a disabled veteran whose house has burned down. He has told officers he is a retired federal employee, on a pension. He lives in a home near to where he panhandles. It has not been damaged by fire.

Nearby residents and business owners have complained about the panhandler.

He “has been seen urinating in the adjacent parking lot as well as leaving litter behind and has been continually causing traffic issues by walking out into the moving traffic to obtain money being given by citizens in vehicles,” a downtown officer wrote in his report after arresting the man again Sunday afternoon.

The man had no response when the officer asked why he continues to panhandle in a place where he has been told time and again to stop. He was issued the maximum fine amount for the ordinance violat