Brooklyn Man's Bird Cage Collection Ruffling Feathers
NEW YORK (CBS 2) -- Residents in Brooklyn are raising a stink – or maybe a squawk – over a quirky collector who lives on their street. His house is surrounded by countless bird cages.
If a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, what can be said about a house on Lenox Road in East Flatbush that sits like an egg in a nest of old bird cages – hundreds of them, maybe even thousands?
There are bird figures and cages of every imaginable shape, size and description. It's definitely odd, but in its own way, it's kind of impressive – except for neighbors, reports CBS 2's Tony Aiello.
"It's a mess – it's a mess," neighbor Teddy Edwards said.
Edwards said the quirky collection is a fire hazard that attracts an unpleasant assortment of vermin.
"Roaches and other things – every week I have to buy spray to spray in front of there," he said.
Homeowner Manny Loupadiere didn't answer Aiello's knocks at the door, but he told the New York Daily News that his love for birds dates back to his service in Vietnam, when he turned to look at a whistling bird – causing a bullet to miss his head.
"It's someone's passion, the gentleman lives here, and this is what he does," East Flatbush resident Jeffrey Adolphus said.
That passion appears to be ruffling some feathers, as neighbors say they've complained to the city but nothing has changed.
"I wish it was gone, but after so many years, still the same bloody, thing, gets worse to me," Edwards said.
The city is promising to send out another inspector next week, as neighbors continue to long for the day when real birds are the only ones remaining in the yard.
The New York City Health Department said the property passed inspection in October, after neighbors complained that it was attracting rodents.
