Connect with us

Northeast

Owner of NYC home that went up in flames says he can't get rid of squatters who 'have more rights' than him

Published

on

Owner of NYC home that went up in flames says he can't get rid of squatters who 'have more rights' than him

The New York City man whose million-dollar home went up in flames late last year says he cannot get rid of squatters who “have more rights” than homeowners.

Zafar Iqbal, 53, told the New York Post he has repeatedly tried to renovate the house but they “keep coming back.” 

He pays $6,000 a month for the Brooklyn property after paying $1.1 million for it in 2017. He says the home is now causing him to go broke, and he also fears for his safety.

“Every two or three weeks I go there, but I don’t approach,” Iqbal told the Post. “I don’t know if these guys have weapons or whatever. My safety is precious too.”

SQUATTERS BURNED NEW YORK HOME WHILE WREAKING HAVOC ON ‘HARDWORKING FAMILIES,’ OFFICIALS SAY

Advertisement

The Dyker Heights home before it burned to the ground in November. Squatter Cheng Chen, who was arrested for arson and criminal mischief, told police a candle started the inferno. (Google Maps)

Residents say the cadre of squatters took up residence in the Dyker Heights neighborhood over the summer and quickly made themselves known by stealing security cameras and other goods from surrounding houses – and directly threatening neighbors.

“I got a couple of contractors, they started working on the house,” Iqbal told the Post. “Next thing I know, I got a call from the fire department that the house is burnt out.” 

BLUE STATE SQUATTERS PUT ON NOTICE WITH ‘AGGRESSIVE’ LAW AND ORDER BILL: ‘PEOPLE ARE GETTING KILLED’

Squatters set fire to a home in Brooklyn’s Dyker Heights on Nov. 29 last year after a monthslong campaign of terror against their neighbors. Now, politicians are citing the incident as another indication that loopholes enabling squatters need to be closed. (LLN NYC)

Advertisement

Cheng Chen, 46, was charged with arson and criminal mischief after the Nov. 29 fire at 1237 67th Street last year. He was saddled with a six-month prison sentence after pleading guilty, according to court records. 

“The fire was caused by candles,” Chen told police, according to a criminal complaint. “I was smoking a cigarette, lit a candle. While I had the stove on to heat up the water and to keep myself warm, [I] went downstairs to take a shower. When I came back, I saw flames and smoke everywhere.”

Dozens of firefighters took an hour to put out the blaze, which caused $900,000 in damage. One squatter, Cheng Chen, was arrested on arson and criminal mischief charges. The other occupants of the home have taken up residence in the razed property’s backyard, neighbors say. (LLN NYC)

However, the New York City Police Department told Fox News Digital that Chen started the fire “intentionally” and “recklessly.” 

The inferno caused $900,000 in damage, the New York Post reported, and took dozens of firefighters an hour to extinguish, according to ABC 7. 

Advertisement

The Dyker Heights home Zafar Iqbal owns is in Brooklyn, seen here where people take photos near Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City on Oct. 19, 2022. (Yuki IWAMURA / AFP via Getty Images)

“Somebody got in there and torched my house,” Iqbal said. “That’s when I found out it was a squatter living there. The squatters have more rights than the homeowners. I’m the owner of the house. How much more can I do? I need help.”

Iqbal has been waiting for months since the fire for his insurance claim to go through, he told the Post. Once it does, he plans to fix the 8-bedroom, 4-bath home that has become a source of neighborhood complaints.

New York, most notably in New York City, has been rocked by repeated instances of squatting cases, including a handful that have turned violent and even murderous. Republican state Sen. Mario Mattera pointed to one man on Long Island in 2021, plumber Thomas Buckleman, who was brutally beaten with a baseball bat by a squatter when he was hired to winterize a building in Blue Point. Buckleman was left with three fractures to his skull and blood on his brain, and told local media at the time he believed he was going to die.

Advertisement

Fox News’ Emma Colton and Christina Coulter contributed to this report. 

Read the full article from Here

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Vermont

How UVM hockey teams fared Jan. 9-10 — Schedule, scores, results

Published

on

How UVM hockey teams fared Jan. 9-10 — Schedule, scores, results


UVM welcomes Adrian Dubois as new men’s soccer coach

Adrian Dubois answers questions from the media following his introductory press conference on Monday, Dec. 22.

Conference play is in full swing to both Vermont basketball and hockey teams. Vermont basketball and women’s basketball both have a bye on Saturday, Jan. 10, meaning only the hockey teams are in action.

Advertisement

How did those Catamounts men’s and women’s hockey teams fare this weekend? For schedule, scores and stats from all games, read on below:

FRIDAY, JAN. 9

Women’s hockey

Vermont 4, Merrimack 1

V: Oona Havana 2G. Kaylee Lewis 1G. Rose-Marie Brochu 1G. Julia Mesplede 2A. Stella Retrum 1A. Lauren O’Hara 1A. Brooke George 1A. Ashley Kokavec 1A. Zoe Cliche 19 saves.

M: Emma Pfeffer 1G. Stina Sandberg 1A. Avery Anderson 1A. Lauren Lyons 39 saves.

Note: The women’s hockey team has won three straight games securing its largest win streak of the season.

Advertisement

Men’s hockey

Vermont 3, Northeastern 2

V: Sebastian Tornqvist 1G, 2A. Jens Richards 1G. Massimo Lombardi 1G. Colin Kessler 1A. Aiden Wright 1A. Jack Malinski 1A. Cedrick Guindon 1A. Aiden Wright 20 saves.

N: Joe Connor 1G. Amine Hajibi 1G. Jack Henry 1A. Tyler Fukakusa 1A. Dylan Hryckowian 1A. Dylan Finlay 1A. Lawton Zacher 21 saves.

Note: The men’s hockey team has won two straight games for the first time since winning its first two games of the season (Oct. 4-10).

Advertisement

SATURDAY, JAN. 10

Women’s hockey

Vermont at Merrimack, 2 p.m.

Men’s hockey

Northeastern at Vermont, 7 p.m.

Contact Alex Abrami at aabrami@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter: @aabrami5.

Contact Judith Altneu at JAltneu@usatodayco.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Boston, MA

Boston’s new city council president talks about election and upcoming term

Published

on

Boston’s new city council president talks about election and upcoming term


The Boston City Council is setting out on a new two-year term with a new council president at the helm.

City Councilor Liz Breadon, who represents District 9, won the gavel on a 7-6 contested vote, cobbling together her candidacy just hours before the council was set to vote.

“An opportunity presented itself and I took it,” Breadon said. “We’re in a very critical time, given politics, and I really feel that in this moment, we need to set steady leadership, and really to bring the council together.”

The process apparently including backroom conversations and late-night meetings as City Councilors Gabriella Coletta Zapata and Brian Worrell both pushed to become the next council president.

Advertisement

Breadon spoke on why support waned for her two colleagues.

“I think they had support that was moving,” said Breadon. “It was moving back and forward, it hadn’t solidified solidly in one place. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the moment.”

Political commentator Sue O’Connell talks about the last-minute maneuvering before the upset vote and what it says about Mayor Michelle Wu’s influence.

Some speculated that Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration was lobbying for a compromise candidate after Coletta Zapata dropped out of the race. Breadon disputes the mayor’s involvement.

“I would say not,” said Breadon. “I wasn’t in conversation with the mayor about any of this.”

Advertisement

Beyond the election, Breadon took a look ahead to how she will lead the body. Controversy has been known to crop up at City Hall, most recently when former District 7 Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges tied to a kickback scheme involving taxpayer dollars.

Breadon said it’s critical to stay calm and allow the facts to come out in those situations.

“I feel that it’s very important to be very deliberative in how we handle these things and not to sort of shoot from the hip and have a knee-jerk reaction to what’s happening,” said Breadon.

Tune in Sunday at 9:30 am for our extended @Issue Sitdown with Breadon, when we dig deeper into how her candidacy came together, the priorities she’ll pursue in the role and which colleagues she’ll place in key council positions.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Pittsburg, PA

O’Connor vows Pittsburgh won’t cooperate with ICE

Published

on

O’Connor vows Pittsburgh won’t cooperate with ICE


Days after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor reaffirmed that he will not cooperate with ICE.

Former Mayor Ed Gainey had taken the same position.

“My stance never changed,” O’Connor told TribLive on Friday. “We’re not going to cooperate.”

O’Connor said the same thing on the campaign trail, promising his administration would not partner with ICE.

Advertisement

“My priority is to turn the city around and help it grow,” O’Connor said. “For us, it’s got to be focusing on public safety in the city of Pittsburgh.”

President Donald Trump has sent a surge of federal officers into Minneapolis, where tensions have escalated sharply.

O’Connor said he had spoken this week with Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, who heads the Democratic Mayors Association. The group has condemned ICE’s actions in the wake of Wednesday’s fatal encounter in Minneapolis, where an ICE officer shot and killed 37-year-old Nicole Macklin Good, a U.S. citizen described as a poet and mother.

“Mayors are on the ground every day working to keep our communities safe,” the association said in a statement Thursday. “If Trump were serious about public safety, he would work with our cities, not against them. If he were serious, he would stop spreading propaganda and lies, and end the fear, the force, and the federal overreach.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has come out strongly against the Trump administration and ICE, penning an op-ed piece for the New York Times with the headline, “I’m the Mayor of Minneapolis. Trump Is Lying to You.”

Advertisement

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said an ICE officer shot Good in self-defense. Noem described the incident as “domestic terrorism” carried out against ICE officers and claimed Good tried to “run them over and rammed them with her vehicle.”

The circumstances of the incident are in dispute.

In December, ICE agents were involved in a scuffle in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood as they arrested a Latino man.

According to neighbors, two unmarked vehicles sandwiched a white Tacoma in the 400 block of Norton Street, broke the driver’s side window, pulled a man from the vehicle and got into a physical altercation. Pepper spray was deployed and seemed to get in the eyes of both the man being detained and at least one immigration agent.

At least some of the officers on the scene in that incident belong to ICE.

Advertisement

They targeted the man, Darwin Alexander Davila-Perez, a Nicaraguan national, for claiming to be a U.S. citizen while trying to buy a gun, according to court papers.



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending