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After Crane Collapse, Looters Raid Ruined Penthouse
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 25, 2008
Modified Mar 25, 2008
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 25, 2008
Modified Mar 25, 2008
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The Turtle Bay crane collapse took 7 lives, flattened a townhouse, and battered three other buildings, but the calamity’s toll doesn’t stop there: Two tenants returned “home” to find their roofless 19th floor penthouse looted of jewelry and electronics worth $30,000 or $80,000, depending on whether you believe the Post or the News.
Jennifer Battistello, 26, and Eileen Hayes, 25, were lucky they were away when the crane's boom fell onto their penthouse. But after convincing police to let them back into their home five days after the crash, they found that looters had scored some major booty. (Ready your tiny violins):
- The Audemars Piguet watch Hayes’s parents gave her.
- A diamond and sapphire antique necklace that once belonged to Hayes’s great-grandmother.
- Hayes’s digital SLR camera and her two MacBook Pro laptops.
- Battistello’s aquamarine cocktail ring and an antique necklace passed down to her by her parents.
The police are investigating, but since the roommates didn’t have renters' insurance, the only compensation they can count on is their security deposit and their March rent ($3,900). It's a bummer, but you know what else sucks? Clifford Canzona, a construction worker killed in the collapse, was so mutilated his family could not bury him in an open casket. Yesterday they filed paperwork for the first lawsuit in the aftermath of the catastrophe, directed against the city, the owners of the building from which the crane fell and the construction manager.
Photo: gattogrosso212.
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$30
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accident
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East 50th Street
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Jewelry
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pentouse
robbed
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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