11 nabbed in drug & stolen motorbike ring
ROSA FLORES KNEW two things: Her Bronx basement apartment was rotten with rats, and her son was getting sicker by the day.
She was stunned to discover the two were related — and Braulio Balbuena Flores, 44, nearly became the second Bronxite killed by an exceptionally rare and potentially lethal bacteria spread by rat urine.
“I was left with my mouth open,” the 73-year-old Rosa Flores said Wednesday. “We’ve had a rat problem here for a long time . . . . My son could have died. He was in the hospital for two weeks.”
Two other people had been sickened with leptospirosis in December on the same block of the Grand Concourse near Yankee Stadium, the Health Department confirmed. It was the first death tied to the bacteria since 2012, and the city said there were only 26 reported cases of leptospirosis since 2006.
The two other cases involved employees who worked at a small business on the Bronx block, said Health Commissioner Mary Travis Bassett.
One of those two died, while the other — like Flores — became seriously ill, but recovered.
In Flores’ case, health officials descended on his vermin-infested building at 750 Grand Concourse this week as word of the outbreak became public.
“We typically identify two to three cases of leptospirosis every year,” Barrett said. “What is unusual here is that we had a cluster.”
Asked about why the public had not been notified sooner, a Health Department spokesman said, “As soon as we learned about the cluster, we immediately put out a health alert to providers, visited residents (Tuesday night) and spoke to elected officials.”
On Tuesday, city housing inspectors got into to four of the building’s 14 apartments and found evidence of mice in each one. Officials noted that mice don’t transmit leptospirosis.
“Our role right now is to reduce the risk of exposure, which is mainly rodent control, and I’m very pleased with the progress that we’re making in that regard,” she said.
Records indicated the building — owned by one of the city’s most notorious landlords — faced 80 unresolved housing code violations.
“This is a quality of life issue, it’s a health issue, and . . . it’s a life and death issue,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. “It begs the question ‘What are we doing about it?’ ”
The building is owned by Ved Parkash (photo), cited two years ago by the city’s public advocate as New York’s worst landlord.
The Daily News last April recounted one resident hearing rats scratching at his shower walls.
Parkash defended himself before scurrying out of a raucous tenant meeting in the building’s lobby Wednesday evening.
“We have exterminators here every month for the last 29 years,” he said. “I knew we had rats. I’ve been working out the problem. It’s a neighborhoodwide problem. I can only work on my building.” Residents like Brittany Jones, 25, said the situation was every bit as bad as it sounds. She has watched rats run through the basement. “It’s disgusting,” she said. “People are getting sick and dying from this, it’s shocking.” Her neighbor, Roberto Lebron, 40, echoed Jones’ gripes about the rat problem. “I can’t even open the windows,” said Lebron. “(The rats) will . . . chew through the screens.” LEPTOSPIROSIS typically presents itself as a mild flu and in 90% of cases just goes away on its own. Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician at Lenox Hill Hospital, said some people who become infected may have no symptoms, while others could get fever, headache, chills, muscle aches, vomiting or diarrhea. Since 2006, there have been 26 reported cases of the rodentborne infection, health officials said. The bacterial disease is spread by rat urine via drinking water or a crack in someone’s skin. It is difficult to diagnose and can take up to week to pop up in a blood test, Glatter said. Some 10 million people annually contract the disease — but only 1 million of those cases are severe, with 58,000 related deaths. THE “STEAL CREW” just got chop-shopped.
Authorities busted 11 people for their involvement in a ring that sold heroin and stole highend motorcycles, dismantled them and shipped them to the Dominican Republic.
The gang, which dubbed itself the Steal Crew, scoured the city for Ducatis and other fancy bikes. Once found, they would snap the steering column and hoist it into a van, officials said.
The crew took the stolen bikes to a warehouse, where they were dismantled and shipped off, officials said.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Wednesday that two indictments had been unsealed in the case in Bronx Supreme Court.