Steven Sumner of Staten Island said
he has had to fight away looters in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. (Credit: CBS
2)
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Staten Island residents already
suffering from the ravages ofHurricane Sandy say they are now seeing their
neighborhoods infiltrated by squatters and looters.
As
CBS 2’s Dick Brennan reported Wednesday, when darkness sets in on Wavecrest Street in New Dorp, people
say squatters make their move – crashing empty homes wrecked by the hurricane.
“They
just go in there late at night when nobody is supposed to be looking, and they
just flop in the house and sleep in there, wherever,” resident Steven Sumner
said.
Residents said the squatters are most attracted to homes that
have electricity.
But Sumner said it is not
just the squatters, but the looters, too. They have tried to break into his
Sandy-ravaged home next to the trailer where he has been living temporarily.
But
he said he has managed to fight back, with many different weapons, including a
cane, a baseball bat, two rakes, and a stick.
When
asked if the weapons work, Sumner said they usually do not.
“They
usually run away from the big rake, but the baseball bat, they look at you and
it’s like, ‘What are you doing? Are you kidding?’” he said.
This is despite what
residents say is a large police presence.
“You
see a lot of police presence all around,” said Bob Clement of Oakwood. “The
police presence is phenomenal.”
But
some people in the area said while they appreciate the police presence to some
degree, they had to take matters into their own hands.
“We
got together, and we said, OK, we’re going to keep an eye out,” said George
Jorgensen of New Dorp.
Jorgensen, a Vietnam veteran, said he has
seen a lot in his time, but has no patience for people ruining his home.
“If
we catch anybody, what we basically do is warn them, and then we tell the
cops,” Jorgensen said.
In
the meantime, Sumner said he’s not taking any chances.
“I
even chained up the back of my camper, so they don’t hook it up and take that
away, too,” he said.
The
Sandy survivors have been left on their own
to defend what the storm didn’t take.
No comments:
Post a Comment