Photo by Dan Rattiner
Dan’s Papers September 16, 2011 danshamptons.com Page 19
Fencing it Off Zweig fence on Georgica Beach
This Beach in Front of My House is Mine, Everybody Else Take Note By Dan Rattiner A family named Zweig last week had a contractor put a series of steel posts into the sand on the beach in front of their oceanfront home just two houses west of the entrance to Georgica Beach. The posts go from the cliff at the back of the dunes, across the beach toward the ocean to a point about halfway to the surf, turn 90 degrees to continue on parallel to the ocean for 100 yards or so, then go back up the beach to the cliff. They basically follow what the Zweigs say are the boundaries of their oceanfront property from the dunes to the surf marked by pre-existing concrete boundary monuments in the sand to prove it. The enclosure, which the Zweigs say will soon be fitted with snow fence, will define the area where their sand was taken away by the storm. They intend to buy new sand from truckers and
thereby restore it. But the fence will also keep out any sunbathers and beachgoers, something that the Zweigs apparently feel is not their problem. For miles and miles in both directions along the beach from this arrangement of metal poles, there are private homes which, like the Zweigs’, lost tons of their beachfront sand to Hurricane Irene two weeks ago. You don’t see one single property in either direction whose owner has fenced off the beach like this. Idoline Duke, whose family owns the house just to the west of the Zweigs, had been out on the beach, talking to Zach, the son of Mollie Zweig, as he measured out where the proposed enclosure would go, explaining that this can’t be done, that it will block not only the Duke’s access to this part of the beach and everybody else’s, but also the Duke’s view, which at certain
times of the year includes the sun setting over the ocean. But the Zweigs, in my opinion, seems to have that millionaire mentality, which says if you buy something worth this much money, you can fence it off and do pretty much what you want inside of it without regard to everybody else. The fact is there are many things about the Zweigs’ property, your property or my property, which are regulated by the authorities. On your own property, whether you like it or not, you cannot shine a bright light into your neighbor’s home. You cannot land a helicopter on your property. You cannot put a cesspool on the side of your house next for your neighbor’s house. You cannot play music too loud on your property. You cannot build on your property a fence more than six feet high facing the (continued on page 22)
MY TOP FAVORITE SUMMER POLICE BLOTTER ITEMS By David Lion Rattiner Scam artists, pirate hangings, sharks and even a turtle with a nail through its back were all stories that happened in the Hamptons in one of the most bizarre summers for crime that I can personally remember. Here are some reports from this past summer that kept us all captivated. On June 15, the strangest car accident in the history of the Hamptons occurred when a Mercedes SUV crashed directly into the Carvel on Route 27 in Bridgehampton. The driver of the vehicle mistakenly hit the gas instead of the brake, crashed into a Lexus and then headed dead center into the Carvel. Nobody was injured and no charges were filed, but a lot of Carvel fans were upset because the store had to close down for a few days to take care of the damage.
In a sting that is fairly common in the Hamptons, six bartenders were arrested for serving alcohol to minors after police hired an undercover agent to crack down on underage drinking. The irony of the whole incident? Two of the six bartenders were under the age of 21. On September 5, police received a call from a woman, apparently drunk, who said she saw a man hanging dead from a rope at the Puff & Putt Miniature Golf Course in Montauk 40 feet up. The man turned out to be a statue of Captain Jack Sparrow climbing up a rope. The woman apologized, and the firemen and the police that responded breathed a bit of relief and also, reportedly, laughed at the incident. Things were very serious August 21 when a man who was brandishing a handgun and who was suicidal barricaded himself inside of his home in Sag Harbor. Police had a standoff
for 90 minutes before it was finally determined that the gun he was using was of the BB-gun variety. Remember the woman Nydia Vega who paid over 20 different people in the Hamptons with fake checks, used 17 different aliases and told people she was a rich heiress with an inheritance of $100 million. Well, she was sentenced finally this August and will be in jail for the next two to four years. The Hamptons went crazy in early June when beaches shut down because a few shark fins were spotted in the water. Only these weren’t the scary sharks that eat people, but completely harmless basking sharks. But just because the word shark could get in the headline, the entire nation heard about the (continued on page 29)