`What are the friggin' chances?'

In the spring of 2021, West was one of the first to learn about her new neighbor and she wasn't happy about it. There were two vehicles in his driveway, the rump of the tall MercedesBenz transit van nearly protruded into First Street. He also parked a bigger storage trailer with a tow hitch in an overflow lot, blocking the view from her perfectly coiffed mobile home decorated inside with white linens and jarred candles that smell like toasted marshmallows and sea salt.

“I even complained a couple months ago — again — because I just realized that it was hogging up two spaces,” she said. “Mobile homes have a thing called a prospectus. It's rules that you have to abide by. There's certain things that you can't do. Well, he's not supposed to have vehicles like that.”

Mostly, though, she can't believe the park owners who require background checks let in a felon. Many of their residents in this over 55 community live on fixed incomes of little more than $1,300 a month and have had enough problems lately, what with the new owners adding water meters for each trailer and increasing the price of laundry from 75 cents to $2 a load. It's hard enough maintaining their aging trailers, lined up on an angle like dominos, many built in the 1960s with old aluminum framed windows shaded by striped metal awnings.

When Singer inquired about purchasing the yellow trailer for $22,000, he didn't hide his identity. He called the family who owned the park a year and a half ago, introduced himself with his full name and disclosed up front that he was involved in a “white collar case” in California and was cooperating with authorities.

“What are the friggin' chances?” said Kat Paluzzi, whose family sold the park to a New York investor a couple of months after Singer bought the trailer. “It's like this tiny — it's not even a good part of St. Petersburg.”

This is not the St. Petersburg of the mini Mar-a-Lago's to the south, where historic brick streets meander along the water's edge and Spanish moss swings from ancient oaks. This is a timeworn trailer park across 46th Avenue from the Red Tiki Bar that serves tasty tacos and draws a rough crowd at night.

When Paluzzi asked why he chose Isle of Palms “of all the places in the world,” Singer said “he just stumbled upon it.” The trailer park is one of the least expensive in the area, she said, but it still earns good reviews. They did a background check and consulted with their lawyer.

“What could we do? It's not like he's a threat to his neighbors. He's not going to plow into their house like a massive drunk or something,” Paluzzi said. “There was just no real cause for concern.”