{"id":370904,"date":"2026-10-12T11:30:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T11:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/370904\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T11:30:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T11:30:55","slug":"staten-islander-arrested-after-booting-car-parked-in-front-of-his-driveway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/370904\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Islander arrested after booting car parked in front of his driveway"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Staten Island man<\/a> was arrested after he took the law into his own hands and placed a wheel-locking parking boot on a car parked illegally outside his home.<\/p>\n

Aaron Hardy, 52, of Stapelton, had grown tired of drivers parking in front <\/a>of his driveway, which he said would often include sex workers and johns, and installed a \u201cNo Parking\u201d sign on his fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first moved down here, they used to come down there and prostitute. They used to come down there and do all types of stuff. They had drugs, and all that other stuff,\u201d Hardy told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey see a dead-end street and they\u2019ll come down there and they\u2019ll prostitute. I get up every morning and see condoms all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA \u201cNo Parking\u201d sign remains posted on a fence at Aaron Hardy\u2019s Staten Island home after he was arrested for booting a car parked in front of his property and demanding money to unlock the wheel-locking device. Google Maps<\/p>\n

When he spotted a Jeep Grand Compass ignoring the sign earlier this month, the vexed man turned vigilante \u2014 applying a boot to the vehicle and leaving a handwritten note on the windshield on the morning of Oct. 2, the NYPD said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI seen you looked at the do not park sign and still park there $25 to take the boot off,\u201d the note read, according to Gothamist<\/a>, which first reported the story.<\/p>\n

He claimed he initially got the idea from a cop, after numerous complaints to police and 311 failed to deter the allegedly sex-crazed scofflaws.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn officer told me like this: \u2018you didn\u2019t hear it from me,\u2019 but I\u2019m going to give you a suggestion \u2013 you can go on Amazon and get yourself a boot.\u2019 I got this idea from an officer,\u201d Hardy said.<\/p>\n

Although usually deployed by parking enforcement <\/a>agents, wheel-locking boots can be purchased by anyone and are widely available online for about $50.<\/p>\n

\"hisHardy told The Post that he took the law into his own hands after many drivers \u2013 including drug users and prostitutes \u2013 blocked his driveway. Google Maps<\/p>\n

The cul-de-sac crusader also alleged that he was only targeted by police because the driver of the Jeep was dating another cop.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had no problem until we had a shiesty police officer get involved,\u201d Hardy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t like the fact that I put a boot on his girlfriend\u2019s car. That\u2019s what this is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardy, who told The Post he operates a car wash business from his home, pleaded not guilty to coercion, tampering, larceny and weapons charges and was released without bail ahead of a December court date.<\/p>\n

The weapons charges were handed out when he booked at the 120th precinct house, where officers found Hardy was allegedly in possession of a stun gun, according to police.<\/p>\n

Hardy defended his actions in a phone interview Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I park my car in my little driveway, if anybody park in front of my house I can\u2019t get my car out without hitting their car. That\u2019s why I put up signs,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Staten Island man was arrested after he took the law into his own hands and placed a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[3283,57,9,24,63,134,136,135,58,5183],"class_list":["post-370904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-arrests","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-us-news","tag-vigilantes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}