Residents Complain Of Neighbor Keeping Plane In Driveway Of Long Island Home
OCEANSIDE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Not even the Wright brothers parked their airplane in front of their house in Ohio.
But as CBS2's Steve Langford reported, that's exactly what Harold Guretzky has done at his home in Oceanside, and some of his neighbors are not pleased about it.
A bird's eye view of Oceanside reveals the bird that looks lost – parked in a driveway as if it were a car.
"Why they're picking on me I don't understand," Guretzky said.
As 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported, Guretzky doesn't want to pay the $150 storage fee for the plane at Republic Airport. He says he can no longer afford the monthly fee, and so he has decided to park the plane in his driveway.
Residents Complain Of Neighbor Keeping Plane In Driveway Of Long Island Home
"I had inspectors show up. They wrote me summonses," Guretzky said.
The Town of Hempstead Department of Buildings said Guretzky faces up to $2,500 in summonses for keep the plane on his property. The tickets cited Guretzky for illegal storage of a plane.
The 69-year-old student pilot said he had dismantled the plane at the airport, trucked it to his house, and then reassembled it.
The summons, he said, is something his attorney will fight.
"He doesn't care if this goes all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States," Guretzky said.
Some, but not all, neighbors are amused.
His neighbor across the street, Ricky, said he doesn't mind the 24-foot-long two-seater, but he objects to all the people who keep stopping by to take selfies with the plane.
"They think it's cute and they stand by his plane," he said. "Do I need to have traffic back and forth here? It becomes a nuisance after a while."
Neighbor Vicky said she doesn't think it looks that bad, but town code says you can only park a car or a boat in your driveway.
"Where is the limit? If we allow this plane, well somebody else might do something. What's next a tank -- a military tank?" she said. "You have to have limits otherwise let's face it, people will run amok."
"I don't know -- can he take off up and down the street with it?" another woman said.
Guretzky said, "I'm not a crazy old man." He said he told one neighbor, "I come from the third planet from the sun – I came in peace"
And the plane in the driveway is one thing, but Guretzky has a lot more inside his house.
He sells and repairs radio and television equipment, which he keeps in his basement. His huge antenna in his backyard has displeased some neighbors too, but the airplane in his driveway, he says, may prove useful if there is another superstorm.
"Well, if I'm here and there's another Sandy, move the cars off the street, because I want to get out of here," he said. "This thing could take off in 600 feet."
He's kidding – we think.
Guretzky even told CBS2 he was thinking of contacting Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger of "Miracle on the Hudson" fame to fly the plane out of the neighborhood for entertainment value.
