Three individuals who were allegedly squatting in an abandoned New Hyde Park home were arrested Thursday evening and all individuals occupying it were removed, according to a neighbor. The house’s locks were also changed once emptied.
The neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, expressed a sense of relief to have had the individuals removed from their neighborhood.
“Nobody was feeling comfortable in their own neighborhood,” the resident said. “And we weren’t knowing what kind of activity could have been going on behind those walls.”
The home at 109 Evans St. had been occupied by alleged squatters for about a year, the neighbor said, The individuals were said to have moved in last summer.
Three individuals were arrested Thursday, according to the neighbor. They said an additional two people fled the home from the backyard and were not arrested.
“This is great, this is great,” the neighbor said, explaining how the neighborhood was overjoyed to have them removed.
Five pit bulls were also reportedly removed from the property.
Efforts to reach the Nassau County Sheriff’s Department for comment were unavailing.
The emptying of the home occurred throughout Thursday evening and concluded around midnight, the neighbor said.
While only five individuals were present during Thursday’s emptying of the home, more than five individuals were seen coming in and out of the home over the year. The definite number of individuals occupying it is unknown.
The neighbor estimated the individuals to be ages from late teens to mid-30s.
Neighbors said the group would throw loud parties at night and housed five pitbulls who barked throughout the early hours of the morning. At times five to six cars would be parked outside the house, the neighbors said.
The neighbors also said the house attracted rats due to the occupants leaving garbage in the driveway.
Neighbors expressed a concern for safety in their neighborhood, with some saying they wouldn’t walk past the house with their kids.
The neighbor said police told them the occupants were dangerous individuals and potentially affiliated with gangs.
The neighbor said they never learned of the occupants’ names and that no neighbor communicated with the individuals in the home.
Blank Slate Media was not told the names of the individuals arrested Thursday, so arrest records could not be cited.
The Nassau County Police Department said they aided in the emptying of the home but did not provide information by the time of publication.
The neighbor expressed gratitude for the actions taken by law enforcement agencies to remove the occupants.
“They did everything that the law allowed them to do to the full extent before they couldn’t do anything,” the neighbor said.
The police’s removal of the occupants comes two months after another pair of squatters were removed from a New Hyde Park home at 39 Brussel Drive – a 10-minute drive away.
The couple was removed after a year in the home and a series of court hearings after the lease they provided to the courts that granted them the right to stay in the home was determined to be fake.
The Evans Street house was in the midst of the foreclosure process last year. It was set to go to auction thanks to the cooperation of the seller, who was the late homeowner’s son, when people broke into the home, Homeowners Resource Group President Eva Biondolillo said.
Neighbors watched as they occupied the home for more than a year. The removal of the occupants has brought a sense of security back to the neighborhood.
“The people in the neighborhood were all watching and it was just something we felt relieved that it happened before anything very serious happened,” the neighbor said.
