Cyclists need to be constantly vigilant of oblivious drivers in this fragile NYC transportation ecosystem, but drivers apparently have to watch out for their own road bullies: forklifts. A Williamsburg family discovered thousands of dollars of damage to their car after a contractor for a luxury building forklifted their vehicle at the Domino Sugar Refinery site. "You can't just pick up somebody's nice car and toss it wherever,” Henry Nahrwold told the Post.
The Nahrwold family had legally parked their 2004 Infiniti in front of 27 South Third Street on Friday morning, one block east of where they have lived for over 30 years. When the 20-year-old Henry came out later that day, he discovered it perched on the curb: "I thought my dad had parked it like that at first," said Henry. "But I thought it was pretty weird. Then I started to notice all the damages, and I freaked out. I was so pissed off."
They discovered what really happened when a neighbor showed them video of a Two Trees Management contractor lifting the car off the road with a forklift. You can see it below.
The family had bought the car for $9,000 just four days prior; a repairman estimated it would cost them at least $2,600 to fix the damages (including disfigured bumper, smashed undercarriage and impaired steering alignment). "It’s like a blatant f- -k you from them. I’m livid," said mom Susan Pellegrino. "They probably wanted to get one of their big rigs up the street and just moved it out of the way." The Post added that they observed more cars up on the curb in a similar manner.
Two Trees management, the real estate company which owns much of gentrified DUMBO, bought the massive site for $185 million in 2012 to develop it into a three-million-square-foot housing village with parks, offices, shops and apartment towers. After it was razed, the site has come under scrutiny for asbestos removal and lack of affordable housing.
Two Trees spokeswoman Nicole Kolinsky blamed Yonkers-based RNC Construction for the forklift incident. "We pride ourselves on being good neighbors and have reprimanded our subcontractor for this unacceptable behavior,” she said in a statement to the Post. "We have been assured that the subcontractor will fully pay for any damages."
"It’s outrageous," Henry added. "They could have at least left a note saying, 'Hey, we picked your car up because we didn’t know what the hell we were doing.'"
