East Village Man's Apartment Emptied During COVID Hospitalization

EAST VILLAGE, NY — A fundraiser was recently created for an East Village resident who had almost the entirety of his apartment cleaned out after building management thought he had died.

In reality, Ryo Nagaoka had been hospitalized with the coronavirus. When Nagaoka returned home after three weeks of battling the disease, he found the locks changed and his apartment emptied out except for his piano and pet tortoise.

His personal items, documents, ID, passport, fridge, and stove were all gone.

The owners of the East Village building located on Avenue D decided to throw out Nagaoka's belongings after just three weeks, according to a report from the Gothamist.

Dan Shapiro purchased the 21-unit building in 2018, and Alex Rodriguez and investor Barbara Corcoran became part-time owners of the building in 2019, according to the Gothamist.

Nagaoka has worked throughout the pandemic as a restaurant worker.

An emailed statement to the Gothamist from an attorney for Shapiro said that the owners made "every effort to locate the resident," including phone calls to local hospitals and the city. The apartment was then cleaned out three weeks after Nagaoka was taken in an ambulance out of the building.

"Yesterday Ryo returned home after hospitalization and months of COVID rehabilitation. He arrived to the building to find his locks changed and his apartment emptied out except for his piano and tortoise," wrote Sierra Z in the GoFundMe created for Nagaoka. "He needs assistance to get his life back and move forward. What the management has done is so inhumane."

As of Friday afternoon, the GoFundMe for Nagaoka has raised almost $18,000 of its $30,000 goal.

You can read the full story on Gothamist.

Editor's note: Patch is a GoFundMe promotional partner.