Posted on 05/01/2009 8:32:26 PM PDT by Chet 99
Nearly a year after a 90-year-old Port Richmond veteran was torn apart by a pair of pit bulls in his backyard, his family is being victimized by beasts of a different sort -- vandals who have pillaged the house vacant since his death.
In the months since Henry Piotrowski died of the wounds he suffered in the July 1 mauling, an intruder or intruders ransacked the John Street home where he'd lived from age 3, stealing the stove, overturning furniture and using his bed as a toilet. Last weekend, teenagers got their kicks by jumping on top of his Saturn, still parked in the driveway, smashing out the windshield and other windows.
"I guess I never dreamed someone would violate it like that," said Piotrowski's niece, Elaine Sutton, 66, who lives in New Jersey. "You hope for the goodness of people, and that the respect would be there. But I guess not."
Piotrowski lingered for six weeks after the attack by dogs Popeye and Brutus, who were put down. Their owners, who live on neighboring Newark Avenue, were charged with manslaughter. Last week, Kim DiPrima, 38, received five years' probation under a plea deal; her boyfriend, James McNair, 28, faces up to 19 years in prison.
Family members had thought that simply leaving the house locked up would be enough, but during a February visit found gas pouring from the hookups where the stove had been, and every drawer overturned. They boarded up ground-floor windows on the house and another building behind it, but vandalism has continued.
Neighbors say police patrol the street at least twice a day. Since Piotrowski was attacked, cops have been called to the house seven times, but arrived after the culprits were gone or determined the call to be unfounded.
Piotrowski's backyard is a popular cut-through for teens traveling from Newark Avenue to John Street. Rocks have been thrown through second-story windows and someone has been using the garage to dump old building debris.
"The neighborhood has been changing a lot over time," said Steve Santillan, 30, who has lived with his family just down the street for more than two decades. "It was quieter, and the neighbors looked out for each other. ... That respect ain't there anymore."
The property, which value the city estimates at $377,000, is in the process of being transferred to Mrs. Sutton, who plans to sell it. Under different circumstances, that might have been a hard decision -- she spent her early life there, and remembers it as "full of love" -- but she said the heartlessness of the damage done robbed it of any sentimental value.
"Once I saw that, I lost my emotional attachment to it completely," said Mrs. Sutton, a retired teacher. "The preciousness has left. Now it's just a playground for bad people."
-- Contributed by Phil Helsel
Waterboard all the neighborhood hoodlums until somebody ‘fesses up. You just know they’re all guilty of something. (Only half kidding.)
How God’s finger hovering over the “Smite em All” button doesn’t just jam it down is beyond me.
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