The rambunctious kids of a Manhattan real-estate bigwig have been tearing across a habitat of an endangered bird in fancy all-terrain vehicles – ruffling feathers among their Hamptons neighbors, and now the police, officials say.
The dad, Aby Rosen, is facing an obstruction rap in Southampton for allegedly locking up the ATVs at his beachfront mansion in defiance of an investigating cop who had threatened to impound them.
Two of the tycoon’s youngsters allegedly sped across fragile dunes and the protected nesting area of the piping plover, a rapidly vanishing bird whose protection has become a Hamptons cause celebre.
Coastal research technician Dawn Ver Hague witnessed the dune derby in horror on July 21 and immediately notified cops.
“They were tearing all over the place,” she said, adding that the kids rumbled directly across restricted areas where plover chicks gather.
Sources said a Southampton Village cop followed the ATV tracks back to Rosen’s massive brick mansion on Meadow Lane, one of the Hamptons’ ritziest oceanfront addresses.
It was not clear which of his four children was involved in the birdbrained stunt.
The Frankfurt-born magnate owns premium properties in Manhattan, Miami and Las Vegas, including the Gramercy Park Hotel and Lever House.
When confronted, Rosen advised the officer to take a hike and brazenly locked the offending vehicles in a garage after the cop threatened to impound them, sources said.
The officer then obtained a warrant to have Rosen arrested on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing governmental administration, sources said.
Two detectives descended on the mansion last Monday to make the arrest but instead had to serve Rosen’s maid because he wasn’t home.
Rosen even had some well-placed officials contact the Southampton Village court to have the warrant vacated in exchange for a promise to face the charge, according to a law-enforcement source.
Records show the warrant was vacated July 29, one week after it was issued. A court clerk said the retraction was the result of a conference with Rosen’s lawyer, Jim O’Shea.
Rosen, who has received several tickets for illegal ATV use, has a Sept. 8 court date on the charge against him.
Neither Rosen nor O’Shea responded to repeated calls for comment.
The judge who handled the warrant, Barbara Wilson, was unavailable for comment.
“We take the protection of the piping plover very, very seriously,” said Southampton Town Trustee Fred Havemeyer. “This is an endangered species, and we must do what we can to protect it.”
Havemeyer added that he knows of complaints of ATV use in front of Rosen’s home dating back several years.
The owner of a home next to Rosen’s recalled having noticed the ATVs on the beach several times in the area but said Rosen was an otherwise good neighbor.