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| May 05, 2024 |
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General News: Alleged Panhandler Barred from Cornwall Plaza
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| John Burger in a photo taken last June. |
June 05, 2007
Cornwall police and the owners of Cornwall Plaza have taken steps to prevent a person they say is a persistent panhandler from entering the shopping plaza.
Last Friday, Cornwall police chief Todd Hazard served three notices to John Berger, 47, informing him that he was not permitted on the plaza from Key Foods to Dunkin Donuts and down to the CVS pharmacy. If police find him there, he could now be charged with trespassing.
Hazard said that he was looking for a way to respond to people's complaints that Berger was panhandling and harassing them outside the stores at the plaza. Panhandling itself is not a violation of the law.
“We’ve had seven calls about him panhandling this year. On May 30, a woman said she was approached three times by Berger,” Chief Hazard says, “I can’t believe it’s been allowed to continue.”
Berger, a six-year resident of Maplehurst Inn on Willow Avenue in Cornwall, says the order has him concerned about where he will shop for grocery food, although he said an assistant manager at Key Food told him over the weekend that he could shop there as long as he didn’t panhandle. “I can’t afford to shop at Cumberland Farms or the DB Mart,” Berger says. “I can’t afford their prices. If I can’t shop at Key Foods, I’ll have to move.”
Berger and other Maplehurst Inn residents frequent the plaza almost daily to cash in the bottles and cans that they have picked up from garbage bins. Chief Hazard says that Berger is the only person who has been the subject of repeated complaints.
Last Wednesday Hazard met with the residents of the inn to remind them that they are not allowed to go through garbage containers nor can they walk through school property, even after school hours. The Maplehurst Inn sits directly across from Willow Avenue Elementary School and the behavior of some residents there have raised concerns among neighbors and parents.
Unaware, he said, of the significance of the new order, Berger returned to CVS on Sunday afternoon. Police were called and he was sent on his way. The next morning, Monday, at 5:30 a.m. the Cornwall-on-Hudson police got a call from an employee of Cumberland Farms saying Berger was outside watching her count the till and asking a deliveryman for spare change.
Berger, who admits that he has been arrested for loitering with intent to beg several times over the years, says the order made him angry, then sad. “I understand they don’t want problems over there,” he says, “I’m a pretty easy-going guy and I don’t want to cause problems either.”
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