Hahaha, I'm so proud. Nearly my first post on JCList and I'm already at Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies.

I'm sure this guy is harmless. He reminds me of Bill, a poor homeless gent from Jay, Maine (used to work in the mill) who my girlfriend took pity on and brought some hot food last winter while he was freezing in Van Vorst Park. A small gesture and not nearly enough to help him fight his disease, whatever it was.

Tony's got a similar disease. I've seen him around, but I was shocked to see him going to town on my old car. To what end does it behoove any us to let Tony run around and scratch cars? Is it artistic? No. Is it therapeutic? If it is, Van Vorst residents should lower their deductible and maybe keep their kids close when taking them to the swingsets. Believe me, if I could get a different job and dump the car, I would.

As for JC98, screw you and your 13 years. Congratulations for getting in at the tail end of the bad times. There's a lady on Mercer who's been around here since 1948, almost long enough to witness those Nazis you seem fond of referring to. She doesn't seem too fond of the "crazies" herself.

For those interested, I filed a police report. It'll be nice if JCPD can locate him and get him some help before he generates more needless insurance claims.

It's a tough choice, but I agree with croft. If they've given you the bank information on the security deposit, you will get it back. You might run into some flack for not paying last month's rent for no specific reason. Renter's law doesn't cover you in 'what if' situations.

If the landlord doesn't give security deposit info, then it usually means they're using deposits as a slush fund. That happened to me in Jersey City before, and I was very lucky to have a broker involved to get it back.

Get out as soon as you can, though, to avoid problems down the line.

Thanks to Ripple and Shadow for the info. It's good to put a name to the face; I've seen him around the neighborhood for as long as I've been here (over 3 years).

He's scratched my car before (he apparently hates older Saabs), but this time he really destroyed the paint job and scored the metal. I hope JCPD can reach him before he does more damage. I can't a file a report until this evening.

He was clearly looking up and down the street to see if anyone was looking before he did it. He knows what he's doing is not kosher, but if he's schizophrenic there's not a lot to be done.

Just giving a heads up to the neighborhood. If you find large lateral scratches in your car hood/fender you can thank the presumably homeless dude who wears a trench coat and pilots a fold-up cart around the neighborhood.

Caught him on Jersey Ave near the park this morning putting some huge gouges in my car. I yelled at him, then after he shuffled away realized he wasn't brushing the car, he was scratching it with a key or broken glass or a knife. He was gone before I could get a photo, but I'm sure other have seen him.

It wasn't the first time. The car has scratches on the other side. Anyone else get tagged by this dirtbag?

First off, I recommend walking on Mercer, esp. after dark. There are problems there, too, but not as bad as the weirdness on Columbus and Wayne. However, avoid the corner of Mercer and Monmouth.

Second, my landlord is absentee, and rarely makes time to visit. I'm guessing many of the other landlords in this area are absentee landlords used to years of bad tenancy. They probably live down on Jersey Shore in a pleasant neighborhood, content to live off rent payments in the "slums". In exchange for no repairs or improvements, they tolerate criminal behavior and infrequent rent payments.

If this area of Jersey City is going to improve, the old-school Jersey landlords need to sell or die off. This sounds cold, but I really could care less which comes first.