Squatters ‘Terrorized’ Brooklyn Neighborhood After Taking Control of $4M Brownstone

Squatters ‘Terrorized’ Brooklyn Neighborhood After Taking Control of $4M Brownstone

By:  Benyamin Davidsons

In Brooklyn, a large group of squatters commandeered a vacant home and have been terrorizing the neighborhood.

As reported by the NY Post, neighbors have been complaining about a group of close to two dozen disheveled squatters who have been tormenting residents and local businesses surrounding a $4 million Brooklyn brownstone which they have been squatting in.

Neighbors of 60 S. Fourth St. in South Williamsburg complain that the young squatters steal packages off neighbor’s porches, threatened passersby, damaged private property, get high, and set off fireworks in the middle of the night. There were 17 complaints logged on 311 about the group of squatters between Sept. 21 and Oct. 2. This week, police stepped in, finally kicking the squatters out of the vacant three-story building.  The NYD forced the squatters out onto the sidewalk. They also arrested one of suspects:

Ryan Grewal, 26, who was charged with felony criminal mischief for damaging a motorcycle outside nearby JANE Motorcycles, an NYPD spokesperson said.

“They terrorized this whole neighborhood,” said P.J. Ximenez, the building’s new manager. Ximenez said that on Sept. 21, the squatters had first broken into the second floor and taken over the entire floor. They soon set up a door barricade secured with a wooden plank, writing on it: “Home is where the blunt is.”  The squatters also broke into an attached carriage house behind the building. They stole computers from inside, Ximenez said. They then used sheets of corrugated steel to barricade those doors to expand their supposed headquarters. “When I first came in here, I found a bunch of needles and [heroin] spoons, and two used Narcans,” Ximenez said. “So, I guess two people must’ve OD’d in here.”

Per the Post, on Monday, police cleared out and boarded up the entrance to the 6,090-square-foot brownstone. By Tuesday, the owner had a rotation of security guards guarding the porch.  The 114-year-old building is owned by Stella Tsang, who purchased the building in 2021 looking to do renovations on it.  The revamp will likely be more costly now, for all the damage done by the miscreants.  Per the Post, most of the walls are now marked with graffiti.  Even worse, since the building has no running water, so the squatters were using jars and buckets instead of the toilet, Ximenez said.

The squatters had tried to convince the police that they were there lawfully, even presenting a bogus lease. The squatters reportedly showed cops a lease agreement supposedly signed by the building’s previous owner, Francine Rosado, said Ximenez.  The presented lease agreement was dated July 25.  “Problem is, Francine died in 2020,” said Ximenez, showing The Post her mass card. “I guess she rose from the dead to sign that lease.”

Ximenez said the brownstone’s contents were put out onto the sidewalk on Tuesday, and the squatters came later to collect their belongings and put everything into a van.  “They’re professionals, they planned this,” Ximenez said. “And I think they’ve taken over other spots, because when they were getting into that van, one of them had said they were going home, and another goes, ‘Which one?’”  Ximenez said the squatters should be behind bars, for breaking in, damaging the building, and presenting a fake lease.

“They’re not homeless, they’re drug addicts. They’re criminals. They’re domestic terrorists,” he said.