Abandoned Luxury Vehicle Becomes Home To Homeless Person, Stinks Up Brooklyn Neighborhood
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A luxury car that has seen better days is proving to be a neighborhood nuisance in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn.
It's unsightly and also has a foul smell.
So why hasn't the city towed it?
CBS2's Marcia Kramer demanded answers.
It has a gold grill and gold hubcaps, but even though it has been parked on the streets of Greenpoint for days no one has tried to vandalize it.
"It's ugly. It's unsightly and it shouldn't be here," resident Frank Farrell said.
"That's a disgrace," resident Veronica Ulino added, "to leave something like that. It is spoiling this whole wonderful neighborhood."
"It's a distraction. It takes up a lot of parking space. I wish they would tow it," another person said.
They are talking about a white luxury car with plastic covering a number of broken windows that, locals say, is the residence of a homeless person. It's chock-full of garbage, food, clothes, stuffed animals, jumper cables and even some religious books.
The car is not only an eyesore, but the stench is unbelievable. You can smell it from across the street and down the block, CBS2's Kramer reported.
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Neighbors have complained to police at the 94th Precinct, which is only two blocks away. One resident told Kramer cops told her their hands were tied, because although they found a homeless person living there, nothing illegal was going on.
They said it was a problem for the Department of Sanitation.
"It has no ticket on it," Farrell said. "Maybe you can get someone to give it a ticket."
Kramer demanded answers, first calling the NYPD and then the Department of Sanitation.
The answers she received gave new meaning to the term "bureaucracy."
You see, when the complaints first came in to the precinct the car had a Pennsylvania license plate on it. It seems you can't tow a car with a license plate. But when Kramer went to Greenpoint on Tuesday there were no plates on the car, and that made all the difference.
The Department of Sanitation not only sent a supervisor to check out the car, it tagged it as a derelict vehicle.
"It's a derelict vehicle and I really cant talk to the press on this," the supervisor said. "They just told me to come down, make sure it's tagged and take pictures."
The Department of Sanitation claims the car will be towed away Wednesday.
The department said New Yorkers can report abandoned vehicles left on public property for at least 48 hours by calling 311.
