He Couldn't Wait Until She Was Cold

A Syracuse landlord couldn't wait to evict the 16 year old son of a woman who was just buried.

His mother had been laid to rest for less than five hours this week when Rich Hayes, 16, got a visit from her landlord.

Get your stuff and get out, the landlord said.

Ronald Reid, owner of the rental property at 901 Second St. in Solvay, called the police on Tuesday - the day of Kim Cavallo's burial in Woodlawn Cemetery. The Solvay officer who responded, Sgt. Curt Francemone, was stunned to hear that a landlord wanted to remove a teenage boy from his home on the day of his mother's funeral.

No doubt about it, this man is cold, stone cold.

"I pulled up and the landlord said, 'I want him arrested for trespassing,' " Francemone said. "I go, 'No, it doesn't work that way.' "

Hayes said he and his mother had lived in the home for the past year. His father died six years ago. Hayes said he'd been home from the funeral for about 20 minutes Tuesday afternoon when Reid showed up and demanded he get out.

Reid said he wanted Hayes out because he was an unsupervised minor who'd brought in a large amount of beer with his friends, and they'd broken windows. Reid denied asking police to arrest Hayes.

To make a long story short, he can't evict the kid right away.

State law requires landlords to give their tenants a full term's notice before they evict them, according to Ronald Van Norstrand, a lawyer who represents the Fair Housing Council. In this case, the term was a month. And to evict a tenant, the landlord has to go through the process of obtaining an eviction order, said Van Norstrand, who for years handled landlord-tenant disputes for Legal Services of Central New York.

I had rental property quite a few years ago and I have a lot of sympathy for landlords who must suffer with bad tenants. But this goes beyond the pale. It appears that Reid may have started in on the kid the same day his mother died.

Cavallo, 39, died of a heart attack around 9 a.m. July 31 at St. Joseph's Hospital, where she'd been transported the day before because she was threatening to kill herself. Cavallo had suffered mental health problems for five years, her son said.

Hayes got the news of her death around noon the day she died. Reid was at his door within two hours, Hayes said.

"I'm sorry for your loss, but we got to get this on the go," Reid said, according to Hayes.

"I need new tenants. You got 24 hours or else I'm gonna have you arrested."

Reid, 46, drove over to the property six times that day and at least twice a day for the next four days, Hayes said. Each time, he told Hayes to move out, Hayes said.

I wonder how Reid found out so quickly about the death of Mrs. Cavallo. Sounds like a ghoul to me.