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One AM and all is not well 🙁
Last night at about 1:00 AM I was woken by the sound of rustling next to my back fence, which has been vandalized many times. I also heard the chinking sound of glass bottles. I thought to myself, at last, I’ll catch red-handed the vandals who’ve been making holes in my fence. I discovered a fire in the backyard of Harriett Tangorra’s rental property at 328 Pleasant Avenue..
When I looked out the window, I saw a bonfire with sparks flying everywhere, notably into the tree limbs. Such fires, even when supervised, are very dangerous. When it is dry as it is now, it can easily spread to fences and homes. Antique homes can be burnt to the ground in 3 minutes because the wood is so dry!
I called the Herkimer police, who came and quickly went stating that the fire was safely under control, neglecting the fact that an open fire within 100 yards of a structure is illegal within the Village of Herkimer, a tinder box of close-set wooden homes amid conifer and oak.
With great consternation, I ventured outside to assess the situation personally. Three tall, thirty-ish, burly gentlemen wearing army camos surrounded the backyard fire at 328 Pleasant Ave. One, later identified as Harriett Tangorra’s tenant Curtis Cool, aka Curtis Doolen, challenged me when I objected to their fire. Calling me names, Curtis Cool told me to “go back to some Arab country.” (I’m Jewish, a 4th generation American, educated in Israel.)
More Neighborly Harassment
Curtis Cool’s pack of cowardly loafers enjoyed harassing their elderly neighbor, Cool calling me a crazy, lying, swearing, child molester who should be sent to a loony bin. All accused me of instigating the altercation, though I told them that their illegal fire had woken me up and that I had to go to work at 5:00 AM.
My husband then again called the Herkimer Police. Again. It says much about Herkimer’s rich tradition of lawlessness that the responding officer again didn’t enforce the law, allowing the thugs to continue with their illegal open fire, embers flying within 3 feet of bone-dry fencing. It was sad to know that this officer seemed entirely unaware of the massive harassment and vandalism of us caused by Cool and others along Pleasant Avenue.. As the officer left, Curtis loudly remarked “What bullshit! Why do we pay the police?”
Neighboring children have been sent to molest us in our own yard, breaking holes in our fence in order to trespass and despoil our yard with trash. We have captured these actions on video, and posted them on this blog. It seems to be nearly impossible to repel these weaponized, vandalizing children from our privacy-fenced yard, even with a locked gate and multiple security cameras.
Advice to Herkimer Village administrators concerned with community safety
- Please make sure your officers can distinguish between a safe fire and an unsafe one. Please don’t call an open fire a covered one.
- BTW, it’s quite evident from the above photo that this fire you described as safe is not and such fires should not be legal in this area at any time of day!
- I have heard there are 3 criminal hot spots in Herkimer, of which Pleasant Ave is one and 328 Pleasant Ave all too typical. Would it be too much trouble to acquaint your officers with the ongoing criminal activity in this area?
