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Mysterious (and smelly) truck removed after plaguing Brooklyn community
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Jul 3, 2023
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Catherine Prisant
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Jul 3, 2023
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An abandoned Brooklyn garbage truck with no license plates was removed Monday morning after a social media brigade urged 311 and the sanitation department to pick it up.
The truck, which was parked on the intersection of Church Avenue and Marlborough Road for about a week, was tagged with signage made by locals in the neighborhood saying, “We Can’t Breathe,” citing a “disgusting” smell that lingered in the streets. The sign also said the truck was filled with trash and what appeared to be blood, and that rodents were “feasting” on its contents.
A sign placed on the truck decries the horrible stench afflicting the community.
Catherine Prisant
More than 150 commenters (as of Monday afternoon) on the popular r/Brooklyn Reddit page — amassing almost 150,000 members — responded to a post on Sunday bringing this issue in Prospect Park South to life. Redditors provided guidance on how to report the truck, who to speak to and their general distaste for the situation.
One user said they had just walked by the truck at the time the post was made, adding that “it reeks.”
At the location where the truck was left, others stopped by to see if it was still there.
“A large green unmarked garbage truck without plates showed up across the street … and it was stinky,” said Barden Prisant, a local in the neighborhood who walked by Marlborough Road to check on its status. “It was very strange,”
Prisant, who said he has more interest than the average neighbor on the matter because he sits on his local community board’s sanitation committee, said the neighborhood has had problems with illegal dumping before.
But he also said that something of this level has never happened.
The truck is removed on Monday.
Barden Prisant
The Department of Sanitation said that the vehicle, which was likely forgotten about, was a private sanitation truck and not a department truck. The department did not know the origins of the mysterious truck.
“As part of our role in keeping New York City streets clean, we do routinely remove … vehicles without plates and with significant damage that go unclaimed,” said sanitation department spokesperson Vincent Gragnani. He also said the truck was tagged for removal on June 28 and confirmed it was removed just before 9 a.m. on Monday.
The garbage truck will be dismantled and recycled and the last registered owners will be issued a $250 fine, according to the sanitation department.
Tagged
environment
public safety
brooklyn
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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