A gang of squatters wreaked havoc on a Brooklyn block for months, stealing from neighbors, threatening them and burning down a house last November, fed up locals and politicians announced Thursday.
Dyker Heights’ reign of terror landed troubling intruders behind bars on arson wraps, but that was little compensation for local residents left in yet another Big Apple squatter nightmare.
“It used to be a very quiet neighborhood, and then all of a sudden these people were breaking into our house,” said Minh Zhu, who lives two doors away from the house at 1237 67th Street. Ta.
“They went to our neighbor’s backyard, grabbed a brick and said, ‘We’re going to break the window.’ We can’t do anything,” said Zhu, 42. “It’s not fair. We pay property taxes and we also pay expensive housing costs. We work hard for the American dream, but is that what we get?”
Squatters invaded vacant homes over the summer and quickly became a nuisance, stealing surveillance cameras and other items from other homes and threatening residents.
According to prosecutors, Chen Chen, 46, was charged with arson and criminal mischief in the Nov. 29 fire and was later sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty.
“The fire was caused by a candle,” Chen told police, according to the criminal complaint. “I lit a candle as I smoked a cigarette. While I turned on the stove to boil some water and warm myself. [I] I went downstairs to take a shower. When we came back, we saw flames and smoke everywhere. ”
The fire caused $900,000 worth of damage to the home.
“There are no Hamptons homes in our neighborhood,” City Councilor Susan Chuan told reporters at Thursday’s Gravesend news conference.
“We the people have small homes. We work hard, checking one check at a time,” she said. “These are hard-working families who pay their mortgages paycheck to paycheck. Meanwhile, squatters break into their homes during the holidays. People’s lives are forever changed.”
The Dyker Heights dilemma is just the latest in a recent spate of high-profile squatter horror cases.
Under New York City law, anyone who sleeps in a house or apartment for at least 30 days can claim squatter rights, even if they entered the property without the rightful owner’s permission.
Last week, two squatters at a Jamaican housing complex sued the legal owners of their $930,000 home, claiming they were locked out despite having a rental agreement and using Shake Shack receipts as “evidence.” Attached as.
In Flushing, squatter Brian Rodriguez demanded an $18,000 ransom to be evicted from the four-bedroom million-dollar home he claimed, and police said the rightful owner showed up. He even handcuffed him.
In the Big Apple incident, a pair of teenage squatters allegedly killed property owner Nadia Vitels after she showed up at her late mother’s East 31st apartment on March 12. , a fatal situation.
And last week, federal agents raided a home in the Bronx. A group of troublesome immigrants with guns have illegally occupied the place, causing chaos in the neighborhood.
“Enough is enough,” Juan said in a release Thursday. “We must address the growing problem of squatters in our communities before it gets any further out of hand.
“If we don’t do something soon, the concept of homeownership will be completely abandoned.”
