NYC ‘terrifies’ neighborhood after foreclosing on $4M brownstone

about two dozen disorganized the occupiers Harassed and terrorized residents and businesses surrounding the $4 million vacant Brooklyn brownstone they had taken over.

Neighbors told The Post that the young vandals stole items from neighbors’ porches, threatened passersby, damaged private property, climbed heights and set off fireworks early in the morning.

60 S. in South Williamsburg. The three-story building on Fourth St. was finally vacated this week, after police forced the squatters back onto the sidewalk. An NYPD spokesperson said they also arrested one of them: Ryan Grewal, 26, who was charged with aggravated criminal mischief for damaging a motorcycle outside Jane’s.

Grewal told the police that he was 60 S. Lives on Fourth Street.

“He terrorized this entire neighborhood,” said PJ Jimenez, the building’s new manager.

Jimenez said the squatters first took over the entire second floor after breaking into the brownstone on Sept. 21. They set up a door barricade secured with wooden planks on which someone wrote, “Home is where the blunt is.”

“When I first came here, I found a bunch of needles and (heroin) spoons and two used NarcansJimenez said. “So, I think two people may have OD’d here.”

the occupiers – including a man who walks with a cane, which Ximenez said others call a “tripod” – an attached carriage house at the rear of the building was also vandalized. They then used sheets of corrugated steel to block those doors. Computers inside were also stolen, Jimenez said.

Police boarded up the 6,090-square-foot brownstone on Monday, and by Tuesday, owner Stella Tsang — who Bought building in 2021 With a view to refurbishing and modernizing it – a circle of security guards was installed on the porch.

The encroachers tried to convince the police that they were there legally.

Jimenez, who has lived in the neighborhood for 58 years, said the squatters handed police a lease agreement, which he said was signed by the building’s previous owner, Francine Rosado. This was the date of 25th July.

“The problem is that Francine died in 2020,” Jimenez said, showing The Post her Mass card. “I think she rose from the dead to sign that lease.”

Everything inside the brownstone was moved to the sidewalk Tuesday, and squatters later arrived in a van to collect their belongings, Jimenez said.

“They’re professionals, they planned it,” Jimenez offered. “And I guess they’ve taken over other places, because when they were getting into that van, one of them said they were going home, and the other one said, ‘Which one?’ “

This week, on a tour of the 114-year-old brownstone, The Post was shown three stained king-size mattresses that squatters were sleeping on. Murals now mark most of the walls, Ximenez said, and since there is no running water in the building, squatters urinate in Mason jars and defecate in buckets.

He added, “It was disgusting.”

Between September 21 and October 2, the group fielded 17 complaints to 311.

“They took two of my packages,” said an angry resident on condition of anonymity. “I’ve given the footage to the police, so I don’t want them to retaliate at my building.”

Cordelia Daley, another neighbor who lives a few blocks from the brownstone, said, “These stupid kids were always blocking the sidewalk, and they would get really bad if you asked them to step aside.” “They were loud and smelly, and I’m really glad it didn’t drag on for months and months, which happens. I hope they don’t come back.”

Jimenez said the squatters should be behind bars, saying they broke into the building and committed theft with a forged lease.

“These are bad people who take drugs,” he said. “They’re not homeless, they’re drug addicts. They are criminals. They are domestic terrorists.”