ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KOB-TV) - Millions of people around the world over know the Northeast Heights home as the one owned by teacher-turned-meth kingpin Walter White in the AMC show "Breaking Bad," but it's not. It belongs to real humans.
After years of taking vandalism, trespassing, and general rudeness in stride, the real-life homeowners have said enough, it's off limits. For Joanne Quintana, it's been a pretty ridiculous four years.
"We feel like we can't leave because when we, do something happens and that's ridiculous," she said.
Quintana's mom owns the house. Watch what goes down in her neighborhood every single day and you'd think Walter White really lives here. Paul Siddell, visiting from Tuscon, Ariz, said he was pretty into it.
"This is almost like this stuff really happened in these houses," he said.
On a weekly basis, Quintana said she loses count of how many people come to the house. Over the first Balloon Fiesta weekend, she estimates it climbed into the hundreds. In 15 minutes, a KOB news crew counted nearly 10 tourists.
They can get nasty. Some even steal rocks from the landscaping as souvenirs.
"They feel the need to tell us to close our garage, get out of the picture, you know -- tell us what to do on our own property," Quintana said.
After a particularly messy weekend, the free show is over. Quintana is installing a 6-foot high wrought iron fence. It wasn't exactly an easy decision; it's one that feels like a punishment.
That fence should be completed soon, but Quintana said people have already tried to climb around the construction to get a picture.
"We don't want to gate ourselves in," Quintana said. "We're the ones who's being locked up. We did nothing wrong."
At a UNM area duplex used as Jesse Pinkman's apartment, the renter deals with it as well. Every weekend, she has at least three or four people up here trying to take a selfie at her front door. Weckiai Rannila said it's annoying at worst, but she applauds Quintana's fence.
She said if it ever got bad, she'd break too.
Frank Sandoval runs Breaking Bad RV Tours. He's become almost a private police force, shooing people from properties.
"We hear about it on a daily basis, so much so that we've gone up on the roof to pull pizza's down," he said.