Unhinged doomsdayer terrorizing NYC apartment building
William Zimmerman's behavior has been erratic for over a decade — but it's gotten so unbearable his landlord is asking a court to give him the boot, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court claims
Zimmerman, 34, is accused of spitting and urinating in the hallways of his East 21st St. apartment building, threatening another tenant's dog, pilfering packages, and using racial and antisemitic slurs –along with 'threats of mass harm' against tenants, the suit claims.
The apparently unemployed tenant has so far created $75,000 worth of damage in his 13 years in his rent stabilized pad, including allegedly creating a water leak in his second-floor bathroom that continues to damage apartments below, claims the May 16 lawsuit.
In addition, he blared videos or audio on a speaker 'of what sounded like people being murdered with audio of women screaming for their life and gun shots' after shrieking, 'We will all be killed tomorrow,' according to the suit.
Several tenants have even asked to break their leases because of Zimmerman, the landlord claimed in the suit.
One former tenant said life in the building was miserable.
'We put up with a lot for a very, very long time,' the person, who moved out in 2021, told The Post. 'I felt I had no other choice but to move.'
Tenants claim Zimmerman is making life in the building miserable.
J.C. Rice
Another tenant recalled how 15 to 16 NYPD officers evacuated the building several years ago after Zimmerman barricaded himself inside his apartment.
'I think they got his father on the phone to try to talk him into opening the door,' the ex-tenant said. 'They were yelling through the door for him to come out.'
The NYPD reported fielding 46 911 calls 'for various reasons' from the building within the last three years. None resulted in criminal charges for William Zimmerman, who has never filed taxes, according to court records.
The building's owner and landlord, Apartment Management Incorporated, has tried since 2012 to evict Zimmerman and his father, Frank, who first leased the pad in 1968, records show.
In previous legal filings arguing his 'succession rights' to the apartment, William Zimmerman has blamed his erratic behavior on 'depression,' saying he was treated at Bellevue Hospital in 2011.
The landlord settled a lawsuit with Zimmerman three years ago in which he agreed to behave, but he has failed to abide by any of those terms, according to the court papers.
The suit seeks monetary damages as well as an injunction barring Zimmerman from remaining in the apartment.
Neither Frank nor William Zimmerman could be reached for comment.
No one came to the door when The Post knock on William's apartment Thursday.
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Drik/Getty Images 14 UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer bragged that the protests had resulted in a dragnet of arrests for 'online activity.' Drik/Getty Images All this police action devoted to mean words is occurring while actual criminals roam the streets of British cities. Of the 33,000 car thefts recorded in London alone last year, only 300 arrests were made; while just five percent of the over 40,000 shoplifting incidents reported in London in 2023 led to charges. 'In Britain there is increasingly a sense that whatever your problem is, someone else can sort it out for you,' Maxie Allen told the Post. 'It's like Amazon, you click a button, you get a product. And I think people are saying, right, I don't like the situation, I'll call the police, they can shut these people up.' As the boot of the government, or the soft tyranny of busybodies, continues to stomp on the throats of everyday Brits, many aren't backing down. When Bernadette Spofforth got home from jail, she was forbidden under her bail conditions from engaging on social media, not that she wanted to at the time. 'I guess [my arrest] took the attention off the real reasons for the riots and it gave them a scalp because in the UK what's happening, particularly with the silencing of speech, is that if the government can shut people up, they don't have to deal with the underlying issue,' she told the Post. She's since picked herself up and launched a podcast, hoping to give voice to others. 'My husband said to me, if you live the next 40 years in silence on our farm, when you die the news on Google will be no different than it is today. So, the only thing you can do is to speak out again.'
