Hot cars, cold cops.
More than a year after taking a beating in Hurricane Sandy, the NYPD’s Red Hook auto pound still doesn’t have electricity and heat — forcing the 20 cops who manage the lot’s assortment of stolen, recovered and confiscated vehicles to shiver in coats and haul in their own space heaters to keep from freezing.
Unfortunately, the current culprit is no longer Sandy. It’s bureaucratic finger pointing.
“The NYPD tells them that it still needs parts to fix the boiler, and that they’re waiting for money from FEMA,” one law enforcement source said of the cops’ plight.
Only Friday morning did the NYPD help out by sending over three big electric heaters, The Post learned.
FEMA, meanwhile, is insisting that its public assistance program is a reimbursement program. “Funds are not dispersed to the applicant until eligible repair costs are incurred and proof of the payment is provided,” explained FEMA spokesman Jim Homstad.
The wind-whipped, waterfront pound — guarded ‘round the clock and known to cops and other law enforcement as the Erie Basin Marine Pound — is one of five warehouses where the NYPD stores vehicles that have been confiscated or are evidence in a crime, along with less-bulky evidence.
Of the five, it was the worst hit in the October ’12 deluge, with scores of criminal cases impacted due barrel after barres of to sodden and unusable voucher bags of crime scene evidence.
The pound’s gray, cinder-block office and the hangar-like steel warehouse have been without heat since Sandy struck, thanks to a deluged boiler.
The boiler has been sitting in pieces on the floor, a source told The Post.
“This past week was very cold,” he said. “The guys were bringing in their own space heaters from home, and they’re working with coats and gloves on.
“The bottom line is, they don’t care about the cops,” he added, referring to police brass. “They don’t care how cold or unbearable it gets.”
The facility has been running a diesel generator for a year, the source said, thanks to its storm-soaked transformer and other electrical equipment damage.
Here, more finger pointing. The cops at the pound are being told Con Ed is to blame. But a Con Ed spokeswoman said Friday that the ball is in the NYPD’s court.
“We can’t do the upgrade work until they (the NYPD) complete a survey of the property,” said spokeswoman D. Joy Faber. “They also are asking for major additional upgrades, and so they have to resubmit the application for that,” she added.
The NYPD leases the land from the Edison, NJ-based company Erie Basin Marine Associates, where a company spokesman declined to comment, except to say that the company is sympathetic, but that the NYPD is legally responsible for damage inside its own buildings.
Requests for comment from the NYPD were not immediately returned.