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The Post answers a Nosy Neighbor
The Post got to the bottom of the latest Nosy Neighbor, tracking down the guy who owns the car piled with furniture that is often parked in Battery Park City. It turns out John McIntosh, 41, has lived out of that car for a decade, and calls himself the “Parking Pirate” since he sells his parking space he secures with his 2008 Toyota RAV 4.
(For the record, commenter JD knew this before The Post did: “This is a guy living out of his car, hanging out in the neighborhood and probably needs the cops called on him at some point for squatting. How has this been going on for so long and no one cares? If he was of another race or ethnicity, he would’ve been gone weeks ago.”)
“McIntosh says he pockets up to $100 a day hoarding his parking spot — and even takes payment by Venmo, under the name “Parkingpirate,” of course,” The Post reports. “’I’ve been doing this probably at least 13 years,’ McIntosh charmingly confessed to The Post. He notes he used to charge $10, but ‘with inflation that couldn’t even buy guacamole at Whole Foods.’”
As for his haul, he finds it on the street and sells it.
The story goes on: “He claims he moved to the city in 2007 and for a time had an apartment on the Upper East Side. He doesn’t consider himself homeless. ‘I just like to keep an eye on my stuff,’ he said. ‘I could go to other people’s places, but I like to be free on my own.’
“One angry denizen fumed to the local paper, the Tribeca Citizen: ‘It’s a nuisance, wrong, an eyesore and needs to be stopped!'”
5 Comments
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In other words: “extortion”
If you want to commit any crime in the United States, just do it with an automobile and there is a 95% probability the police will either default to calling it an “accident” and/or won’t put in the bare minimum effort to enforce existing laws on the books.
How is that even legal? why is that car not towed away? Its not only an eye sore .. its dangerous… how can it be legal to move the car like that, even if its just a block…
I love how everybody in the neighborhood is picking on this guy and yet they do absolutely nothing when placard abuse runs rampant and the folks that work at Stuyvesant high School are consistently blocking handicap accessible sidewalk access.
To be fair, I think people in the neighborhood (and all over the city) recognize that placard abuse is a problem. The issue is I think that people feel they have limited recourse to solve it given the enforcement mechanism is run by those who abuse placards themselves. Plenty of people use 311 to report these problems.
No offense but speak for yourself.. im tired of reporting placard abuse to 311, calling city council, tweeting, I even have NYPD1 contact number on my phone that I use when one of their cars is parked in front of my building blocking the entrance.. That said that doesnt exempt this guy from disturbing our neighborhood.