He’s baaaaacccck!
An elderly shoeshine man who admittedly torched two shoeshine stands at Bryant Park over a two-week period was released without having to post bail yesterday — and promptly went back to work at Grand Central Terminal today
“This is none of your business. Step off,” said an angry John Swain, 72, when approached by The Post at Grand Central this afternoon.
“I have a right to be here.”
“I’m working,” said Swain, who nonetheless had trouble scaring up customers for his chair and shoeshine box. “Talk to my lawyer.”
The Bronx resident was busted by fire marshals Wednesday and charged with two counts of arson for the March 22 and April 6 fires set on the shoeshine stand that had sat on 42nd Street at Fifth Avenue, just north of the New York Public Library.
That stand is maintained by the Bryant Park Corp., and at the time had three shoeshine men using it for free to service paying customers.
Authorities said that Swain — who has bounced around various locations in Midtown for the past 20 years or more — claimed he was angry about allegedly being barred from working at that stand, and torched it in retaliation.
Bryant Park officials, however, said they never banned Swain — who never worked at that stand — and were unaware of the other men who shine shoes at the stand barring him from doing so.
The first fire destroyed the stand, and then the second one heavily damaged its replacement, leaving it unusable, for now.
Despite being charged with two felony arsons on Wednesday — and despite confessing to the crimes — Swain was issued just a desk-appearance ticket and released by the Police Department, instead of being held for arraignment in Criminal Court and bail possibly being set. He is due to appear in court May 17.
“I would have felt he would have gotten something a little more severe,” said Dick Dillon, head of security for the Bryant Park Corp., which knew of Swain years ago when the company set up a shoeshine stand at Grand Central.
“I mean, the guy burns something down and he’s allowed right back out?”
“I’m glad they got the guy. I wish he was still in jail, but he’s not.”
A Police Department spokesman did not respond to requests for comment on the decision to give Swain a desk-appearance ticket.
Dillon said the Bryant Park Corp. expects to borrow a loaner shoeshine stand from Grand Central by next week, but also plans to repair the last stand that Swain admittedly set afire.
Swain’s ex-wife, Dorothy Scott, divorced him three decades ago after just six years of marriage, but remains friendly with the shoeshine man, who lives in the same Morrisania building as she does.
“When I found out he was running the streets with those sluts, I threw him out,” said Scott, adding that Swain liked working in Midtown because he still enjoys looking at women who pass by his stand.
Scott was surprised to learn of the shoeshine stand arsons.
“How is he going to do something dumb like that?” Scott asked. “Something must have made him mighty mad.”
Additional reporting by Laura Italiano