I am a 65-year-old woman on a very limited income, and I have three grandchildren to whom I give hands-on care. They live with me. Shortly after I retired to be more available for childcare, I bought a house in Steelton, Pennsylvania. I bought it on a special program for poor people - low down payment and all that. I loved the house for the kids. It had a big back yard as well as a big side yard. I hoped to be able to develop them into nice play areas for my grandchildren. Shortly after moving to Steelton, I received an ominous diagnosis about my health. I was certainly not physically functioning at the optimum. But, I kept a little part-time job going and crossed my fingers. I hoped we could make out until my Social Security kicked in. With my retirement savings, I decided to put a little shed in the side yard, sort of a gazebo - playhouse for the kids. It would have taken all my retirement money (only a few thousand dollars), but I had dreamed of it all my life. Zozos was the man who was the codes enforcement officer for Steelton, I went to talk to him, for permission to build my shed. Steelton, Pennsylvania No Place To Have A Shed Zozos certainly would not permit me to build a shed or playhouse on that spot. It was "only" about 20 feet from an alley, for Crissakes!!! What if everybody in Steelton starting building sheds that close to alleys? When I pointed out to him that Steelton was full of garages and sheds which bordered on alleys, he remarked that they were grandfathered. They could stay there, but I couldn't put a shed 20 feet from an ally! He encouraged me to build a garage in the middle of my back yard, instead. He kept coming back to the house to measure the property. He keep looking at it to see if things were wrong. He was a nasty and aggressive piece of officialdom. Finally I just wanted him to go away and STAY away. But he would not go away! He came back and knocked on the door. Seems that now, he decided he a problem with my fence. I had another confrontation with him. He made me look at maps in the codes office. (And they pay this guy to do this kind of stuff!) I think he felt he could get away with bullying me becuse I'm a woman. I was very upset and decided to go to the store to try to forget about his harassing me. I went to the Giant Food store. My heart was pounding. My blood pressure way way up; all from dealing with that bully, Zozos. At the supermarket, I had a heart attack. The ambulance took me to the Harrisburg Hospital Emergency Room. Well, I didn't have any money for the ambulance. That was another bad bill on my credit report. I had to leave the emergency room after a short time, with the doctors yelling at me about how I would be sorry. Zozos came banging on my door again! My daughter answered it. She's on disability from having been pistol whipped and knifed during a robbery at her job in a Steelton retail store (happens all the time - Steelton is a lawless town). She told Zozos that his last visit had upset her mother so much that she had had a heart attack and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Zozos found this very hilarious. He laughed his behind off and left with a grin on hs face. I made no attempt to recontact him and gave up on the playhouse I had wanted to erect. My next set of horrors in Steeton began with the parking and snow removal ritual. Apparently it's of great financial profit for Steelton. (Keep in mind that Steelton lost all its revenue from the steel plant that used to be there. Now they spend their time abusing and exploiting their citizens for money. Any way they think they can get a buck out of the old persons or out of the poverty-stricken persons, they'll do it. - and I fit into both of those categories.) Steelton, Pennsylvania No Place For People Who Want to Use Their Property I had an old car. It broke down a lot, because, in case I forgot to mention it, we're poor. Lots of times in Steelton when it snows, they won't allow anyone to even try to drive on the streets. If you have to get to work - tough. They put a snow plow through, and dump the snow on your car. Then they give you a ticket if you don't take the snow back off your car and move it. Where is one supposed to put the snow? Usually it goes back into the street. People who shovel out their spots leave chairs in the clearing so other people won't park where they've shoveled. In Steelton, Pennsylvania, that offense is a $500 fine. Fortunately, I was never stupid enough to try to chair thing, but I had a problem with my old car and lots of snow. I had no place to park. One time I parked my car on the street in a legal spot. It wasn't in front of my house. The man who lived in back of the sidewalk there left a hate-note on my windshield. He demanded that I move my old car right away. When I tried to move it, the battery was dead. It took a while to find somebody to charge my battery. In the meantime "somebody" broke my windshield. They let the air out of all my tires. That made it very hard to move my old car. The police were not interested in pursuing prosecution of the individual who wrecked my car. It was probably the same man who left the note. They were interested in putting a sign on my car. It said if I didn't have it towed away immediately, they were going to fine me lots of money. Fortunately, a friend who knew about cars came by in time. I got the thing towed out of the area before I had to pay the Steelon fine. Now, I had a bright idea! Since I couldn't build a shed in the area "near" the alley, why couldn't I use the area for parking? That way, I'd be parking on my own private property, right? The police would not have to fine me or leave me notes when I had car problems. I took down the little wire fence and pulled my car into the area beside my house. This would save me lots of money and torture, I thought. And when it snowed, it could just sit there until all the chaos was over, or the sun melted the snow off my old car. It was not okay with Zozos. I got a note put on my car. It wasn't parked on blacktop or gravel. In Steelton, Pennsylvania, I wasn't allowed to park my old car on my own property without the required blacktop of gravel. I looked around and noted that many people were parked on the bare ground without Zozos harassing them. I called Zozos and told him this. He said he'd prosecute everybody else, too, if they were so bold as to park their cars on their own property!!! I noticed him doing it with one or two other people, but then he gave up, because they just kept parking their cars in the same spots. He got bored with them. Nonetheless, he kept after me. I didn't have any big toughs or drug-dealers living with me, and I didn't have any prostitutes living with me to offer favors, like in other nearby situations. Steelton, Pennsylvania protects the drug dealers, whores and thugs. I was just an old lady with some kids. Nobody was going to stand up for me. I was the perfect victim for the arrogant Steelton authorities. I gave up on it and decided to put down some gravel with the money I'd put aside for the illegal shed/playhouse. I hired local guys. They dug up the grass to made a spot and threw down gravel for me to park my old car. Steelton, Pennsylvania Certainly No Place for Kids As I mentioned earlier, I bought my house in Steelton so my grandchildren could play in their own yard, and have their friends over, and not be in the streets with gangs, or bothering other people at their places. Consequently, my grandchildren did, in fact, play in the backyard. For safety, I put a fence around it. Sometimes other kids would come around and yell or throw rocks and cause problems when my children were outside playing in their yard. Usually, I just had the kids come inside, out of sight. But one day, the strange kids did more than just throw rocks. They came through my latched gate and started taking toys out of the yard right while my grandchildren were playing with them. I called the Police. The police came. The Steelton, Pennsylvaina Police explained that they were going to take ALL the minors involved in the dispute to juvey hall, or otherwise subject them to terror tactics about their behavior. Did I mention Steelton authorities are bullys and thugs? I explained that my kids were only playing in their own yard! The other kids were throwing rocks into my yard, and they came onto private property and started fighting, and took things. The Steelton, Pennsylvania police said, my kids were fighting in the yard, too, so my kids were also breaking the law and subject to punishment! Sure, they tried to get back their toys on their grandmother's property, when kids they did not know unlatched the fence, and came in. Clearly, the Police of Steelton weren't going to be of any assistance with regard to real juvenile crime. So, I gave up on that, too. Steelton, Pennsylvania No Place To Get Humane Treatment or Help Even Where It's ADVERTISED Since I am a senior citizen, and poor, I have some troubles affording the upkeep on my house. It was drawn to my attention that Steelton, Pennsylvania supposedly had a program called the "SHIP" Program. It was supposedly designed for - you guessed it - senior citizens who were poor; those with trouble affording the upkeep on their houses! I ventured to the Borough Building to get an application from one Sylvia Stoner. She seems to be emloyed in the enforcement office. (At some point, Zozos left, maybe they needed an expert at Guantanamo.) After that the tortures inflicted by the enforcement people were inflicted by Cat Woman, Sylvia Stoner and a Joker named John Trish. He likes to take photographs - especially of little girls in their bathing suits frolicking in their own backyards. I never saw Trish unless he had a camera. He practically camped out in our alley with that camera, in particular on days when my granddaughters and their friends were running under the sprinklers or belly-skooting down the slip-and-slide in their swimwear. But, getting back to my main point, I applied for the SHIP program. I qualified in every way for help with my house. I was, of course, denied. I reaped no benefits from this well-advertised program scheme. I wish I knew who did reap those benefits, perhaps the mayor's cousin. My application mysteriously got passed to some sort of "beautification" committee! The committee showed up and toured my house saying they could maybe help me in a few areas. At the time, I had a small cockapoo puppy, a pet of my oldest granddaughter. For the "beautification" visit I had put him into his (large) traveling crate so he wouldn't be underfoot. The beautification woman was appalled that the puppy was in its carrier. She insisted that he be let out. He was very excited that she was fussing over him. She held him up in the air. He promptly peed in her face and all over the front of her suit. She was very unhappy. After that, all I heard about was how the puppy had peed on her. Apparently I was not approved for any help. According to the volunteer who was with her, their group was DYING to find people they could help out with voluntary carpenter work, electrical upgrades, paint, etc. In Steelton, never let your puppy pee on the beautification lady - not even when she grabs him out of his crate and holds him high into the air! Put a diaper on him, or something - make him wear a foley catheter during official visits - elsewise your elderly requests for help might fall on pee-soaked ears. Steelton, Pennsylvania No Place To Draw Attention To Yourself One thing that my application for help did accomplish: it drew attention to my house. The same officials who denied me access to the "SHIP program" could now make demands on me about what I had to do to improve my house - Without their help, of course, and without the help of any of their programs. In charge of these next demands and torments were Photographer Extraordinaire, John Trishand Sylvia Stoner, a woman who "sells" yard cleanup programs to citizens by announcing to the populce that their yards are messy. Or sometimes not even announcing that their yard are messy, just sending out a team of men with a front loader and weedwackers onto your property and sends a you bill for this work, work for which she claims to pay her men more than $20 an hour while listing herself as a "salesperson" on the invoice. There was also a man named Dennis Heefner. He does a lot of rubber-stamping of incompetents. He's the Steelton, Pennsylvania Borough Secretary in charge of issuing directives that are directly in opposition to, and contradictory to, those directives which are issued by the same Dennis Heefner. (More about that later.) I discovered the futility of trying to reach the Mayor or Council at that time .....Forget the Mayor Hartwick, he was too busy running for County Commissioner to actually help out in Steelton except for the parades and floats when he would show off his "Godfather" suits. He made it, too. He is now a County Commissioner. Based on his wonderful record in Steelton, no doubt. He's said to have been arrested for drunk and disordrly on his own turf. Any time I ever invoked the help of the Mayor, it was like screaming down an empty well. Nothing to hear but the sound of my own voice. During this period of time, I was very, very ill, having had a relapse on some serious health issues. I underwent surgery at Harrisburg Hospital and was followed up by the Oncology section at the Hershey Medical Center for months. I was still trying to work and take care of my grandchildren. I was driving a 1989 Honda which burnt oil. I was trying to maintain my house. Here began my final adventures with John Trish and Sylvia Stoner of the Codes Enforcement Section of the Borough of Steelton. Instead of the flags on the streets which claim that Steelton has many diverse peoples in single unity, they should have one big billboard as you enter the borough shouting "Every Man For Himself." One of the town officials who was very definately for himself was John Trish, introduced earlier, and here is where he became very, very active. Steelton, Pennsylvania No Place To Have A Brick Sidewalk Or Not to Have One, Either Over the summer of 2006 I used to have a little brick sidewalk in front of my house in Steelton, Pennsylvania. It was in perfectly fine repair; nothing wrong with it. Some sort of projected beautification was being touted by the town. Apparently, as the Borough had just received a grant of large monies for the improvement of the area, they were going to "beautify." Steelton began using money by shutting down small businesses and taking their properties for little or no money. One was Mark's Garage. It was right across the street from the Borough Building. Mark was well known in Steelton for generations. He's that rare thing, a competent and honest mechanic. He had to get out of the way of the beautifiers. At this same time, letters began to come in to me about how I could improve my house in keeping with this making everything lovelier. John Trish became a sort of lawn ornament at my house. Every time I looked out, there he was, with his camera. My daughter suggested that we put out a little cafe table and a couple of chairs with a sign reading, "Reserved for John Trish and Camera." That way, he wouldn't have to sit in his truck while he was nosing around the property. Trish objected to chairs in my yards. He wrote several letters requiring action. He wanted paint on the porch posts, some fence posts from a former fence removed, and some chairs that he was tired of seeing removed from my back yard. He harassed me. He wrote. He called. When he called, he recounted that on Monday he had seen these interior type chairs (awful, in a back yard!) in a certain position. On Wednesday he had seen them moved somewhere else. On Friday there they were again - moved!!! All of these places were within my private property, fenced-in yard of my house. His letters demonstrated he'd been stalking and watching me and mine for days. My daughter saw him taking pictures of the kids, like he always did. His unnatural intrusion disturbed her more than the harassment letters and calls disturbed me. Taking photographs of little girls for no reason is BAD. Trish sent me a photograph of some trash on my property. The trash had already been removed! He didn't explain why he sent the photo since the trash had already been hauled off by Pig Penn Haulers. Why the 8 x 10 color photo of the trash? I complained about Trish. Trish called me. He said, threateningly, "you tried to get me in trouble with the county commissioners, didn't you?" Sure I did, who deserved it more? I began to get really scared of him, at this point. It seemed like he could be anywhere he wanted and do anything he wanted. He went to a store near my home and told the storekeepers to "keep an eye" on my house for him. Maybe he was afraid I would move a chair! Of course, they told me about it. He left his card and number with them. Meanwhile, crime ran rampant in other areas of Steelton that were not my old house, properties crumbled all around me, and for reasons I can only assume were related to the cuteness of my grandchildren, I was saddled almost daily with the unwelcome presence of John Trish and his camera. I should mention that I did meet all Trish's demands, including removing those fence posts, and getting rid of the much-photographed trash, and painting, but in one of his many letters referring to beauty in Steelton he said that I had to repair my brick sidewalk. It was, he said, a trip and fall hazard. This was mentioned in an off-handed sort of way, along with a list of other things I was being required to do. Most of them I'd already done. There is an appeal system in Steelton and it says that if I want to appeal what the zoning guys say, I had 10 days. My problem was: what was wrong with the sidewalk? I went out and looked at it. It was a brick sidewalk. A few days earlier, my homeowners insurance people had reviewed the property. There was nothing wrong with my brick sidewalk. It was very unclear to me what he wanted done. I called the codes enforcement office. My question was: "what standard do you want my sidewalk to meet?" Did he see a loose brick? Did he want the blacktop corners (put there by the Borough) to be removed and replaced with bricks? What did he want? It was not a "trip and fall" hazard. It was a regulation brick sidewalk. Steelton, Pennsylvania No Place To Ask a Question Sylvia Stoner answered the phone when I called with my question. Stoner is an enforcement officer thoroughly capable of answering my question, but she refused. She said it was Trish's letter. He had to answer my questions. She also withheld the information that a new ordinance had been passed that would impact on my sidewalk. Cat Woman gave me absolutely no satisfaction. I said, "hey, I only have ten days to appeal this, and I don't know if I have to appeal it until I know what he wants. What does he want? Can anybody else answer my question. Little "Sylvie" didn't know. She said she'd have Trish call me, but he was not available right now. Maybe he was sick or something. But she wasn't answering, and she wasn't giving me anybody else to do any answering, even though she had been "for seven years" working the codes enforcement office. When I complained to her in a general way about the sidewalk situation and how I might have to take some sort of action about it, Sylvia said: "we're the borough [of Steelton, Pennsylvania]. We can do anything we want to." Almost exactly the same quote came out of John Trish a year later while he was taking pictures of my grandchildren. I waited for the Trish's call-back. It never came. Two days before the deadline to file an appeal on the sidewalk repair, I called again, and once again I got Little Sylvie. In an almost identical conversation, she refused to help me or get anybody else to help me. She affirmed that Trish, who might be sick, would call me back before the appeal deadline. He didn't. Across the street from my home there was a house owned by a rental landlord. That is, an income property, not one owned by a regular resident homeowner. The property began to undergo sidewalk repair. They had big trucks, concrete pouring guys drinking beer, a good looking blonde woman talking to John Trish (who stayed for days in the area). Other repair was done to front and sides of a duplex with heavy equipment, reputedly costing $22,000. That sidewalk replacement was approximately the same size as the one on my old house would have been, because the sides of my old house also had bricks; $22,000. That is what the sidewalk replacement cost for the house across the street. John Trish showed up at my house when I wasn't home. He talked to my daughter. I suppose he waited til he was sure I wasn't at home to knock. By the time he showed up, my appeal period had expired. Whatever he expected of me had to be done by sometime in August, a few weeks or a month away, so I hoped it would not be any big deal. I had to call him back again. He told me I had to REPLACE (not repair) my whole brick sidewalk, "like your neighbors across the street." All the bricks had to be removed. Concrete or blacktop had to be put down. And it was too late for me to appeal, because nobody in the Enforcement Office would talk to me when I had called earlier. This was like going into shock! Imagine being told you had to expend more than $20,000 to replace a sidewalk and you only had six weeks at the most to do it. Even if you were not already a poor, sick old lady trying to take care of grandchildren and go to the clinic for medical care, it would be a nightmare. I called the Borough. I complained about Trish and his backhanded tactics. He got me into this situation where I could now not appeal what he had done. Nobody called back for a long time. Trish telephoned. He affirmed that I had to replace the sidewalk, not repair it, even though his letter just said to "repair" it. He said if I did just a little bit of it at a time, that would be okay. I asked, if "I take up some of the bricks, will that count as work toward the project?" He said it would. I took up some of the bricks to count as work towards the project. Dennis "Rubber Stamp" Heefner then of the Steelton Borough Council telephoned me about my complaint. He said I should put caution tape around the work area. He said he had got a lot of calls about John Trish, he was sort of a loose cannon. Heefner had been told to investigate him. This was the investigation. Trish kept his job and continues to just photograph kids and stalk people to this day. The Borough loves him. There was a rumor going around that someone in the Borough had a brother in law who had a paving company, and that that was the reason for the new ordinance which required concrete sidewalk instead of brick sidewalks. They had intended to have the brother in law do all the local repairs. I could never find out who the relative was or if the rumor was true, but the company who did the work across the street had an Italian name - I just forget what. After I obeyed Heefner by putting up the caution tape, the Borough Secretary called me again. Now, he told me to take down the caution tape. The school district had complained that it interfered with walkers going to school past my house. So, I took down the caution tape and could not continue any work. I didn't have any money to do it anyway. A man who lived a few blocks away from me was allowed to keep up his caution tape and do some work on his tiny sidewalk. I took a picture of his place. If Trish can be a photographer, I can, too. Behind the wheel of my 1989 Honda which burns oil, I made a tour of Steelton. I took many, many photographs, not of children in swimsuits, but of brick sidewalks that had not been repaired. I thought that if I had to repair my sidewalk in six weeks, everybody else should have to do the same. The Borough thought I was wrong. They said they didn't have the money or manpower to notify everybody simultaneously about their sidewalks and their new ordinances (even though I had done it in one day in my old car). I was stuck with a torn up sidewalk, no money to proceed, no caution tape to protect the area, and this news: THE ORDINANCE REQUIRING CONCRETE SIDEWALKS WAS CHANGED. Suddenly, nobody had to replace their brick sidewalks! Nobody except me, of course, because I had already taken up my bricks to please Trish. I tried to sue the Borough. Steelton, Pennsylvania No Place To Piss-Off a Cop After it got around that I had tried to sue the Borough, people became very upset. I noticed retaliation. The Borough was getting even more aggressive towards me. Once, I was stopped by a cop, Officer Minium, for speeding. I challenged it. He took me into the cop station at the Borough Building to show me the video that said I was speeding. My daughter went along as did my grandchildren, because, at the time, I was giving them a ride back from a Girl Scout/Brownie meeting in Oberlin. When we saw the video, my daughter said (in a soft, conversational voice) "well, it really doesn't look like she is going any faster than anyone else." Officer Minium jumped up, put his hand on his sidearm, screamed at her to get out, assigned two officers to escort her out of the Borough building. They put their hands on my daughter and grandchildren. They manhandled my family for saying what was true. The granddaughters were sobbing and terrified because they had not done anything wrong. The Steelton, Pennsylvania cops bullied 7 year-olds out of the building. It taught the children an important lessons cops are the worst thugs in the country. They are your enemy! I left voluntarily at that point. It was very clear that I was endanger in this Borough, by the very personnel who lived and worked there, and so were my kids. Steelton, Pennsylvania No Place To Be a Renter I tried to sue the Borough, but of course they lawyered-up with all their high-priced attorneys. Nobody felt that I had been done wrong by being the only one demanded to have that huge sidewalk expensive repair done. Eventually I of course lost my house. By that time the area had collapsed anyhow, I really didn't want my grandchildren to be there any longer. The crime in Steelton Pennsylvania absolutely skyrocketed. The new elementary school put the little kids right into the laps of the gangsters. Still, I wish I had made some money on the place instead of just losing it and all my things with it. I received bills from Steelton after the house was no longer mine. The bills included one from Little Sylvie. It was for mowing my grass and whacking my weeds. There was also a $500 water and sewer bill. That was for a house where the water had been cut off at the main valve for almost a year, and where vandals had stolen the pipes from the basement. I am told that the house was quickly occupied by "crack hoes." The last time I tried to go in the house, while it was still in my name, there was graffiti all over the walls, inviting me to "f**k" myself. They had stolen my stove, and my refrigerator, and a lot of my memorabilia that I did not get moved out in time. I was afraid to go back inside after that, so essentially I lost all my furniture as well as the house itself. The police don't seem to have noticed any of the crimes. Most of them are on the drug dealers' take. So the dope dealers and prostitutes have full reign of the place. As a stop gap measure, since I had no place to live for me and my family, I did attempt to rent an apartment in Steelton. That way we at least were near some people we had grown to know and care about. We got apartments on Front Street in Steelton. That's the main drag, Route 230. We were right across from the gas station and above a barber shop. As soon as I became a renter and while the lawsuit against the borough was in court, Sylvia Stoner and John Trish began to follow, to STALK my family around Steelton, stalking us and barging into our homes for any reason, real or imagined. I rented a little cabin in the rear of Elm Street for myself to organize my affairs. Stoner had me before a magistrate and demanded to know where I had moved. In a short time, she was "inspecting" the place and they gave the landlords a fit about trash, and parking. While in the house, they were all over my personal possessions. In the apartments on Front Street, Stoner made several "inspections" of my new RENTED apartment, one while papers from my suit were spread out on the table. After she left, exhibits and pages were missing. Stoner and crew also searched my daughter's apartment which was directly below mine. There, they grilled the children and took them aside. They demanded to know where their grandmother was. Once, when the lock on my daughter's apartment was not quite latched, "workmen" came into the kitchen unannounced. They were there because they were "with the borough" and "were just like the police." They almost gave me a another heart attack. My daughter complained to the Borough and also notified a Federal Judge about what had happened. Nobody at the Borough gave a damn. Following me around no matter where I live and what I do is the very definition of stalking. This is against the law. Nobody tailed the pushers! Officials have a right to do their jobs - even if they are taking photos - but what they don't have is any legitimate power to stalk, harass or bully. One day in February, John Trish followed my oldest granddaughter in his truck/van, as she walked down an alley. He followed her from our old Fourth Street address, where she was visiting a friend, and where he had obviously been posted. He followed her until she got to our new apartment. Obviously, the little girl was scared. She ran and hid. He got out of van and took out his camera. He took photos of the children. The other two little girls had been playing in the back of the new apartment where my car was parked. He scared them to death. They ran and hid, too. While they were running and hiding, Trish continued to take photographs of them. They said they recognized him from when he took their pictures at our old house. My daughter heard the commotion of the girls yelling. She went out onto her back porch to see what was hapening. She saw Trish taking the pictures, and demanded that he stop. She was on private property and so were they, and he was not doing anything official. Trish told her that he was "with the Boro" and "could do anything he wanted." He then proceeded to take a picture of my daughter yelling at him. Eventually, the court got that picture in their possession. I'm sure there are many, many photos of my grandchildren. I really hope they don't end up on the internet maybe telling the children's location. We moved out of Steelton, Pennsylvania, so they are no longer at that approximate location. We couldn't even rent in peace. We left the area completely. I would certainly warn any prospective residents against going to Steelton, Pennslvania. If Pennsylvania had a hemorrhoid, it would be Steelton, in Dauphin County. Steelton, Pennsylvania An Honorable Official of Steelton Speaks There once was a man named John Trish Who said, "I will do as I wish!" Because in this place With a smirk on his face He was an insipient icon... So saying, he did And we couldn, get rid Of the man or his damnible Nikon. Steelton, Pennsylvania Another Honorable Official Speaks (or, as a man from centuries past wondered "who is Sylvia? WHAT is she?") "We can do anything we want, About sidewalks," She said. So you just do what you have to do... And I'll be there with my paperwork.

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