Squatters Throw Feces Out Of Windows Of Bed-Stuy Home: Neighbors

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — The neighbors of a troubled Albany Avenue brownstone — stolen by a notorious deed thief and purchased by an admitted real estate swindler — can't open their windows anymore because of the smell of human excrement.

"They were throwing their feces out in the backyard ... now they're throwing it out the front," said neighbor Linda Knight. "I'm at my wits end."

Squatters at 49 Albany Ave. have been collecting human waste in buckets and throwing it onto the street, behind cars and in abandoned lots nearby for months, Knight and another neighbor told Patch.

"I saw a man carrying buckets out with literal toilet paper trailing behind," said another Albany Avenue resident who asked not to be named. "The poop buckets sent me over the edge.... I was shocked."

Knight and her neighbor have been reporting the foul situation — which they say includes drug deals and massive piles of trash — to the Sanitation and Health departments through 311 since last summer, both neighbors told Patch.

But according to Knight, the Health Department reported no findings and Sanitation workers assigned to the block are as fed up as she is.

"Sanitation won't pick up their garbage," Knight said. "They're like, 'We're not picking up no feces.'"

The three-story house near Herkimer Street has become the burden of the block since 2017 when Aderibigbe Ogundiran, then 36, stole the home from its rightful owner, Mary Hyman.

Ogundiran pleaded guilty to stealing six central Brooklyn homes, one of which belonged to Bed-Stuy's Community Planning Board chairman Richard Flateau, in June 2018.

"It's had me wondering if the same thing is going on in the other homes that have been stolen in Brooklyn," the Albany Avenue neighbor said.

The building was then sold in a foreclosure auction for $820,693 to First Equities Inc. in January 2019, according to Department of Finance records and deed-signer David Dilmanian.

Dilmanian, who pleaded guilty to rigging bids on foreclosed Brooklyn houses in 1999, said he's filed warrants to evict the troublesome tenants within the next 30 days and plans to conduct a gut renovation.

"We inherited the occupants with the building," Dilmanian told Patch. "Hopefully they're at the ends of their rope."

But Knight remains skeptical, as both she and her neighbor have seen police clear out the squatters before, only to see the house occupied again hours later.

"I still need someone to correct what has happened to me," Knight said.

Knight took her complaint to the Brooklyn Borough President's office and began proceedings to file a civil complaint Thursday, she told Patch.

The retired corrections officer doesn't want to see anyone punished. Knight said just wants to stop finding buckets of feces, piles of garbage and large rats outside her home.

"It's too much," Knight said. "Just clean it."