The Ballad of Sandy the White Freak

On Aug. 3, Department of Public Works (DPW) investigators discovered an abandoned boat washed up in a less-than-ideal dock—the shoulder of the northbound access road along Kenilworth Avenue NE near the Maryland line.

The vessel, a MacGregor speedboat, white with steel-blue trim, was tied atop a trailer. Its new environment had not been kind: The trailer was missing its tires. One rudder had been torn off. And its steering wheel had been swiped. Inside the boat, people had dumped three tires and several crumpled empties.

Since the private hauler DPW contracted needed to find an adequately equipped flatbed truck to take it away, the boat would get a six-day stay on Kenilworth—and a Tuesday-night visit from Omar Johnson.

Johnson had an explanation for the boat’s new environs. He claimed the boat was his, that he had sold it but when the buyer couldn’t make his payments, he had to repo the boat to this strip. He offered to sell it for $2,800. By way of salesmanship, Johnson said he’d christened the vessel Sandy the White Freak.

Sandy, he says, provided some happy memories. “I took it on the marina a couple times, ate some crabs,” he boasted. “And banged a few bitches.…As you can see, it’s very tight. You do the math.” Johnson’s offer on Sandy was good for a few more hours. He claimed he would be coming back to the MacGregor in the morning to move it to friendlier shores.

Instead, on Wednesday, Aug. 9, DPW hauled the boat away to its Blue Plains impoundment lot.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Bureaucracy, DPW, Kenilworth, Neighborhoods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.