Merrimack Valley

Police on alert for house looters

Installation of sandbags accelerated

By Victor Tine
Staff writer
Published: November 29, 2008

PLUM ISLAND — Newbury police are combating a new problem at the Northern Boulevard site of a house that was demolished after it was dangerously undermined by the sea Tuesday: looting.

Meanwhile, the company hired to stabilize the beach from Plum Island Center northward has accelerated the pace of its work installing giant sandbags against the overhanging dune.

Police Chief Michael Reilly said people have been ignoring the yellow police line tape and climbing onto the pile of rubble that until Wednesday was the home of Geri Buzzotta, and attempting to scavenge her possessions.

"I have to keep an officer there 24/7," Reilly said yesterday. "It's disgusting what people will do."

"Geri Buzzotta's entire life is in that rubble pile, and these people have no concern about bringing backpacks and metal detectors to this area to see if they can benefit from her misfortune," Reilly said. "It sickens me to have to keep police officers posted at this site to keep these vultures away."

The chief said the area — including the beach below the site — is closed because it remains a public safety hazard. He said any unauthorized people in the area of the debris pile are trespassing and could be arrested.

No one had been arrested as of yesterday afternoon, he said.

"We've been throwing people off, but we haven't arrested anyone yet," Reilly said.

In general, he said, "the public has been quite supportive of the Buzzotta family and has shown tremendous respect for their personal property and privacy."

He said that after the demolition was shown on numerous television news broadcasts, the location became widely known.

"They're coming from everywhere," he said.

On a brighter note, Buzzotta will be spending the next few weeks at blue, The Inn at the Beach, free of charge, according to inn staff member Janelle Vauture. After that, she departs for a Florida winter home she and her late husband bought in the 1980s, said Buzzotta's grandson, Chris Peak.

Almost all the wreckage had been removed by sunset yesterday. While family members searched for personal belongings and an excavator filled several roll-off containers with the rubble of Buzzotta's former home, workers at the Plum Island Center parking lot deployed the large sandbags that town officials and oceanfront residents hope will hold back the tide.

The sandbagging crew was working under the supervision of the president of Netco, the Lexington-based erosion control company that the town hired for the project.

Company President David Lager said Netco would be working overtime and Saturdays to pick up the pace of the beach renourishment.

"We're fighting the tide at the moment, and we're getting into winter weather conditions," Lager said. "It would have been nice to have been able to start a month earlier."

He said the high tide dictates when the Netco crew can work, but that as the sandbag barrier gets built up, high water will be less of a factor.

He said the work will take at least two or three more weeks.

"I suspect we'll be here until Christmas," Lager said. "I'd like to think we'd be out of here by then."