Sunday, July 25, 2010

Items missing from the scene of Bayside fire


From Eyewitness News:

A Queens couple who already lost their home in a fire, now says they lost valuable items that were inside.

"It's a mess, a real mess, I have not a toothbrush," said fire victim, George Regoukos.

Regoukos says he doesn't know what he'll do, about all he's lost in the fire.

The roof of his apartment building was smoldering at the time, and dozens of tenants were displaced, but that was only the beginning.

"I don't know what to do, I'm very frustrated," Regoukos said.

Regoukos and others were escorted back into their apartments after the fire, only to find out that some of their most prized possessions were either stolen or trashed.

"All the paintings, the Lalique, the Stueben glass & I had museum pieces, everything just disappeared," Regoukos said.

In Regoukos' case, the family mementos, such as furniture and artwork, were antiques that cannot be replaced, and his lawyer tells us, they're worth a tremendous amount of money.

"We're talking about a quarter of a million dollars. Yes, yes, very substantial, very substantial," said the residents' lawyer, Herbert Waichman.

His lawyer says Regoukos isn't the only one who's lost out.

"Well I have about 10 additional clients that relate similar occurrences to me," Waichman said.

Eyewitness News asked the building's management company, Ciampa in Flushing, for some answers.


The building management company? Heh. You folks are sooooo naive...

28 comments:

Babs said...

A cop in Bayside once said to me that firemen are 40 pounds heavier when they come out of a burning building than when they when in.

Babs said...

typo . . . . then when they "went" in.

Lino said...

Babs...Yep.

My Father told of a fluorescent ballast that exploded and burned in the basement of one of his large galleries back in Dec '59.

It produced a lot of smoke and he called FDNY. They came, chopped the unit off it's hanging chains and left after making a report. Total time maybe 20 min.

Father went into the gallery upstairs and found that the five new Polaroid cams he bought as gifts had walked including the top model 110B, total of approx $1600 in 1959 dollars.


I used to kid him that all he had needed to do was shut off the light and ventilate the room.

I do -really- appreciate the Firemen and it's too bad that these things happen. Cops are no angels either in this regard.

Babs said...

Pot calling the kettle black?

Unfortunately there are some cops that went into the force for all the wrong reasons and/or abuse their positions of authority.

The good cops and firemen are heroic on many levels - and one way is to not go along with the bad in their ranks.

Good story about your Dad - today every gallery has top of the line security cameras scattered throughout - I assume there are only a few places left now where they can get away with stealing.

Anonymous said...

AHH, our hero fire fighters strike again. When is the upper brass going to do something about this. No the people should not be happy you put out the fire, they expect you to be humane and decent. Not steal from them at such a vulnerable time in their lives.

Anonymous said...

Insurance anybody?

Anonymous said...

Heard a story of a fire in Brooklyn in the early 90's when a police captain showed up and noticed alot of "overstuffed" firemen. He went up to their boss, and threatened to have his cops frisk every fireman unless they all went back and returned whatever they were hiding under their coats.

Anonymous said...

If you knew what went on at Ground Zero,you'd be sick........

Anonymous said...

If you knew what went on at Ground Zero,you'd be sick........

Karma a.k.a. lung cancer is a bitch. That's what those macho fire fighters who didn't want to wear a mask get for trying to act like tough shit.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, i'll leave it to you guys to make judgments without any facts. What you neglect to realize is that criminals target buildings with recent fire activity as they know every door has been forced and they only have to pop some nails on the plywood over the windows, not having to guess if anyone's home or not.

I've witnessed it in daylight, people walking out with tvs while the fire department pulls up. But you can continue to blame the good guys and keep your head in the sand about what really goes on in this city. Maybe they should let all the buildings burn to the ground so they don't get accused of theft.

But hey, maybe the firemen should

Queens Crapper said...

Maybe next I'll do a post about how firemen trespass on private property to practice using their axes.

I have 3 incidents from my neighborhood alone that have been reported to me...

Queens Crapper said...

P.S. Looting Reported At WTC

The Times quoted Guard officials as saying that it was virtually impossible for civilians to reach the underground concourse, which is very tightly guarded.

Anonymous said...

Who was guarding the guards?

georgetheatheist said...

So right.

"Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
-Juvenal (Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis), 60-140 CE

ConcernedQNZ said...

35,000 cops and 12,000 cops... there are plenty of bad eggs.. there are many more good guys/ woman on the job than bad tho.. lets not forget that.

ConcernedQNZ said...

**12,000 firefighters

Typo.. my apologies

Anonymous said...

If you knew what went on at Ground Zero,you'd be sick........

Karma a.k.a. lung cancer is a bitch. That's what those macho fire fighters who didn't want to wear a mask get for trying to act like tough shit.


FDNY fatalities would have been a lot lower had they not been stuffing their coats with every bit of loot they could get their hands on in the shopping concourse. That's Karma.

Anonymous said...

Maybe FDNY's Captain Gene Kelty is sharing some of that loot with "follow the buck" Chuck Apelian (LOL).

Nah....they're getting their cut from TDC for their Flush-Com sellout!.

Anonymous said...

Yawn...there goes "Lino"...always reminding us that he's the son of a privileged gallery owner.

Now it's one of his father's galleries.

Hubba, hubba, hubba!

Now doesn't that elevate the status of his comments?

Anonymous said...

From the story it appears that only FDNY personnel and their own neighbors would have had access to the apartments which were forcibly opened.

Anonymous said...

I have lived next door to a fire hous "animal house" for over 30 years and I can tell stories that would make your head spin. Some of the guys were great guys but the majority were horrific. The abuse and disrespect for their neighbors has been horrific, knocking down treens, parking on sidewalks, sex in cars, drinking in the bars and then running to a call, building extensions to the house without permits, putting up no parking signs illegaly, and this is just the begining. I have actualy given serious thought to writing a book.

Anonymous said...

I have actualy given serious thought to writing a book.

You'd decimate far too many forests. ;-)

Mary O'Shaughnessy said...

I would love to know how many of you have been in burned out apartments. I'm a Red Cross volunteer and I am in at least two a month (and before you get all snarky, it's in the company of the tenant). Do you know what debris looks like? As often as not, most of the material in a burned room is unidentifiable after the fact.

Those of you who don't trust firefighters would, I am sure, be happy to send them away if your place were on fire--to keep your stuff safe.

Queens Crapper said...

Firefighters steal from the scenes of fires. I have had firefighters tell me this directly. If you don't want to believe that this goes on, then go ahead and continue to be naive. The firefighters' job is to put out fires, and those include ones to private property. Homeowners should not have to worry that these heroes will be looters as well.

And explain how only 4 apartments were damaged but there are 10 families missing their stuff...

Anonymous said...

That's why I have installed video cameras on my premises that transmit to my central alarm station.

If I catch one FDNY bastard swinging an ax to open my door and walk off with some trinkets...I'll set his ass on fire in court!

Those thieving fireman have been operating the same way since the old volunteer company days.

Anonymous said...

when a city bus with five passengers is in an accident ,explain why twenty liability injury claims are filed?

the public has its percentage of greedy thieves also.our judicial system is inundated with frivolous law suits.

i .as a jurer ,
made sure that the insurance company lawyer won the case.
many jurists are honest citizens.

Lino said...

Anonymous said...

when a city bus with five passengers is in an accident ,explain why twenty liability injury claims are filed?

the public has its percentage of greedy thieves also.our judicial system is inundated with frivolous law suits.

i .as a jurer ,
made sure that the insurance company lawyer won the case.
many jurists are honest citizens.

I am sure the insurance co. was grateful. Did you get a pat on the head?


--Tell us another one Gramps.

Anonymous said...

Quater of a million dollars worth of possessions kept in an apartment?

That sounds a little fishy to me. How large of an insurance rider did this guy have? An adequate one would have cost a big nut, maybe $6-7000 a year or more.

Not arguing the unprofessionalism of firemen who do seem to overly enjoy smashing other people's things up, I suspect an smidgen of insurance fraud.

Little known fact: the private companies hired to salvage (i.e. board up windows) after a fire are no saints either.