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NEW YORK CITY — Odors, roaches, rats, hoarded items and fluids from a corpse remain in a police-sealed New York City apartment nearly a year after the city took the body away, according to a new lawsuit.
Jane and Darien Chrostowski, landlords of 99 Russell Ave., filed suit against the NYPD this month in a desperate bid to get in and clean the Greenpoint apartment whose stench is driving out their tenants, stomach-turning court records show.
“There are currently terrible, foul odors coming from the Apartment, possible vermin in or around the premises, and roaches infesting the Building,” their lawsuit states.
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“Plaintiffs have been informed by other tenants that ‘they are moving out.'”
The Chrostowskis and their attorney Paul Sabaj didn’t respond to Patch’s request for comment before publication. The NYPD declined to do so.
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The stench of death is not a unique problem for New Yorkers, as much as Patch readers might hope otherwise.
When one New Yorker took to social media for solutions to a dead body smell in the building, Redditors jumped at the chance to share tips gained from experience.
One posted that putting a can of pre-ground coffee on the stove can drive away the smell of decomposition. Yet another noted that dead body smells can take a “while to clear out, especially if no cleaning was done after.”
“It’s not on the police or coroner to clean up the apartment after, so you could be stuck with it for a while,” they wrote.
Read More: NYC Knows Too Much About Dead Body Smell
It’s true.
NYPD records show property owners are responsible for cleaning up trauma scenes — a rule that potentially puts the Chrostowskis into a dilemma.
In essence, the landlords can’t perform the cleanup so long as an NYPD seal, which they can’t legally break, is on the apartment.
The seal on the door after John Macek — a rent-controlled tenant who lived in the apartment for more than three decades — was found dead July 23, according to the lawsuit.
After NYPD officers removed Macek’s body from the apartment, they sealed it by putting a padlock on the door along with a “do not enter” sticker, the lawsuit states.
The seal has remained unbroken ever since and no one has been inside the apartment, according to the lawsuit.
Macek’s apartment was already unclean before his death and he had been “hoarding various items,” the complaint states, along with six photographs taken inside at some point.
But since the seal went up — during a 100-degree heatwave, no less — tenants in the six-apartment building have complained about a “strong foul smell” emanating from behind Macek’s door, according to the lawsuit.
Any effort to clean the apartment has been stymied by Brooklyn’s slow-moving courts, the lawsuit argues.
Macek’s surviving sister has not yet been appointed for his estate, which means she can’t give them permission to access and clean the apartment, according to the lawsuit.
Until that happens, the Chrostowskis need the NYPD’s cooperation to unseal the door, the lawsuit states.
It seeks an emergency action that would allow them to clean, fumigate, exterminate and “otherwise maintain the Apartment free of any odors and garbage that may pose a significant and emergency health risk to all other tenants and the Plaintiffs.”
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