After essentially working two full-time jobs, any NYC mother is entitled to take a little time to at least have a relaxing dinner with loved ones before the chaotic schedule that is being a mom starts all over again.
Unless, of course, the NYPD slaps a big yellow sticker on your door saying you’ll be arrested if you enter your own home. And you’ve left dinner in the oven…
That’s exactly what happened to 32-year-old mother-of-two Austria Bueno, who returned home from picking up her two children – aged 6 and 15 – from school to find that she couldn’t enter the apartment.
Cops had used outdated information to pinpoint a drug den, but the suspects had moved out in August.
The NYPD is now being sued by Bueno for an egregious use of the nuisance abatement law – a right the NYPD have to bar access to a residence without the tenant having to appear before a judge. It was originally devised so cops could crack down on prostitution in Times Square in the 70s. Bueno seeks to have this tool declared unconstitutional.
Robert Sanderman, Bueno’s attorney, told the NY Daily News: “Literally, people are being evicted and their life is being destroyed based on mere allegations that are hardly ever verified. It just flies in the face of the Constitution.”
The Bueno family were forced to pay for a $208-a-night hotel and then sleep on the floor at Bueno’s mother-in-law’s house. Because they couldn’t get access to any of their clean clothes, the family could not attend work – losing out on three-days’ pay – or school and had no choice but to eat at McDonald’s.
Bueno told the NY Daily News: “Everybody cried. Me, I was crying like a baby. I don’t deserve that. My kids don’t deserve that either.”
Four days later, Bueno attended her court date and was allowed to re-enter the home.
Featured cover image: Flick River