By Anthony Rifilato
"Someone called and said, 'There's a dead body there and I know what a dead body smells like,'" said First Precinct Officer Maureen Beccaris.
The 911 call came in at midnight on Tuesday, Oct. 7, and police broke the glass door of the salon to get inside because the business was closed. Upon investigation, police found no body, but the source of the odor was also not found.
Some tenants on the stretch of Grand Avenue near Merrick Road say the odor is persistent and is driving them out of business.
The owners of Fatou Hair Braiding said they were shocked to see boarded-up door, but when they found out the reason for the police entry, they said they weren't too surprised. They said since they moved in last December, the landlord has done nothing about the smell, and that a tenant upstairs had notified the police last week.
"They had flies and smells all over," said co-owner Jasmine Diop. Diop said when they informed the landlord of the smell and flies after moving in, they were told it was because the store had been vacant for so long.
"It's an old building, I think it's the basement," Diop said. "[The landlord] doesn't want to clean it."
The landlord could not be reached for comment.
A spokesperson for the Town of Hempstead said that the Building Department had not been notified of the odor by tenants or by the police department, and that no violations had been issued. If there had been any sewage backups or other violations, police would have notified the department. The spokesperson also said that an inspector checked out the location on Oct. 9 and said there were no foul smells, and that residents didn't report anything.
This stretch of buildings on Grand Avenue has been the subject of many complaints. In September, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi recommended meeting with the landlords and doing something to beautify the area as part of his economic development plan.
Sewage issues were brought up earlier this year as well. In June, three feet of sewage had collected under several buildings after a pipe burst at the Mambo Cafe at 2416 Grand Ave. Workers who were cleaning the mess discovered what turned out to be animal bones in a crawl space behind the cafe.
And the problems have been too much of a headache for some businesses to endure, Diop said. It was the smell and unresponsive landlord that prompted Alex & Gabby, a clothing store and beauty salon, to close up shop two weeks ago.
Another nearby business owner who asked not be identified said that the owners of Alex & Gabby were tied up in a lawsuit with the landlord, who had been trying to evict them. They, too, complained to the landlord about the smell, this person said.
Diop said that despite her and her co-workers' constant efforts to clean the store, they are closing their hair-braiding business this week and are currently looking for another location in Baldwin. "My customers keep telling me that they can't bear the smell," she said.
