Dec 21, 2018 6 min read

A Cecil Township man carrying three guns was arrested on his property Tuesday after he tried to get inside a building to get his things out before the township started demolition.

Andrew A. Puchany, 66, of the 100 block of Muse Bishop Road, was arrested by Cecil Township police about 8:45 a.m. outside one of his condemned duplexes at 160 Birch Way in the village of Muse.

“I went there Tuesday to get more of my stuff out,” Puchany said during a phone interview Thursday.

Puchany said over the past few weeks he’s been trying to move things out of the residence. When he saw people working around the property Tuesday, he decided to try to get one last truckload of his things out.

But after what the township called a 20-year battle with Puchany over his “eyesore” properties, which have been condemned since 2015, township officials had police at the demolition site, just in case Puchany showed up.

Police wrote in the criminal complaint that when Puchany did arrive, they told him he was no longer allowed on the property, asked him to leave and warned him that he would be arrested if he came onto the property. Police said Puchany “repeatedly stated that he just wanted to get his belongings and that what they were doing to him was not right.”

Police said Puchany then walked onto the property to enter one of the residences.

“I started down the steps to open the door and the next thing I know, he’s grabbing me from behind and throwing me on the ground and arresting me,” Puchany said. “I don’t know how they can arrest me for being on my own property.”

The police officer said Puchany initially pulled away from him, before the officer took him to the ground. The officer found three pistols on Puchany, one in his sweatshirt pocket, one in a waistband holster and one in an ankle holster. When police asked him if he usually carries three guns “or if it was only for today,” he responded “just for today,” according to the criminal complaint.

Puchany said Thursday he was carrying the guns Tuesday for self-protection because “there’s a lot of crazies out there.” He said he wasn’t there to cause trouble or start a fight. Police confirmed Puchany has a valid carry license for the weapons.

Police also found a folding knife in his pocket, several hand tools and a “lunch bag full of medication.” Police said that during the arrest Puchany received a small cut on his hand and was treated by EMS.

Police charged him with resisting arrest, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. He was arraigned Tuesday afternoon by District Judge Traci McDonald and released on a $5,000 unsecured bond.

Puchany said Thursday he wasn’t resisting arrest, but that his pulling away from the officer “was just a reaction to being grabbed from behind.”

The demolition of the buildings was expected to wrap up this week, with some site work still needing to be done, according to Cecil Township manager Don Gennuso. The lots will still be owned by Puchany, though there will be a lien on the property for the cost of the demolition, which was slightly more than $40,000, Gennuso said.

“We haven’t had any feedback yet from the community about the demolition,” Gennuso said. “The residents in this area were disappointed in the condition of those properties, so I expect positive reactions.”

Gennuso said the township has been fighting Puchany over the state of the properties for nearly 20 years. It came to a head in 2011, when the township first started sending Puchany notices that they wanted the buildings demolished, Puchany said.

“The crooked politicians in Cecil Township have been trying to kick me out of their township for years. I paid taxes for 39 years in Cecil Township,” he said. “I know I had some problems with the property a little, but I got behind when I was caring for my elderly parents.”

Gennuso said the four units had been in disrepair for years. He said before they were condemned, the township had them inspected by a structural engineer, who Gennuso said, “found several structural deficiencies.”

“The units were just filled to the gills with junk and debris,” Gennuso said. “There were file boxes full of just empty bottles, and it was very similar to a scene from ‘Hoarders.'”

Puchany said he tried to fix up the properties in 2011, but the township didn’t give him the chance to do so.

“I was getting contractors to bring the property more into compliance,” he said. “I started having trouble getting contractors to do the work, because they would tell me that Cecil Township told them they were going to demolish them.”

In 2013, the township had condemned the properties, which Puchany appealed. He argued then and continued Thursday to say that the only issues with the properties were “cosmetic,” not structural. He said the township deemed the residences “unlivable.”

“But that’s a relative term,” he said Thursday. “The house is not structurally unsound. What the house looks like on the inside is no one’s business but my own. I was a pack rat, I guess, and lived alone too long. The current term is ‘hoarder,’ I guess.”

In 2014, the township purchased half of one of the duplexes from the county repository to try to control the maintenance of the properties. In 2015, after a lengthy appeals process, the buildings were again condemned.

Puchany said Thursday that the township “improperly applied” the building code ordinance to his properties and “manipulated the law” to target him.

Gennuso said the township abides by the state’s building code and that the only time they changed the township’s property maintenance code was in 2015, “as a direct result of Mr. Puchany’s lawsuit.” He said Puchany tried to appeal a notice instead of an actual citation for property violations, so the change in the property maintenance code was made to better clarify the appeals process.

Township solicitor Gretchen Moore said it’s been “years of notices of violations, condemnations and appeals to the condemnations.” She said in August 2017, the township sent Puchany a notice of demolition, which he appealed and lost. He then appealed to the Court of Common Pleas to stay the demolition, which was denied in December 2017.

“After that point, the township focused on obtaining bids to demolish the property,” Moore said.

Puchany said he had a hard time finding any lawyers to take his case.

“For some reason, they have it out for me and I can’t find a lawyer to fight them,” he said of the township. “Tweaking the law to specifically target me is my biggest gripe. The stress this has put on me is almost unbearable.”

As of Friday morning, the only thing left standing on the property was the garage.

“They just forcefully bulldozed me out of the township,” Puchany said. “They took my entire adult life. What about my pursuit of happiness?”