Homeless man who lived in car nearly died in NYC garage collapse
A homeless photographer living in his car narrowly escaped being crushed to death when he returned to the vehicle just moments after the lower Manhattan garage it was parked inside collapsed, he told The Post.
Ahmed Scott, 37, arrived at the structure near City Hall to retrieve his 2019 BMW 5-Series shortly after 4 p.m. on Tuesday — just a few minutes after the garage caved in, killing at least one person and injuring seven.
“The way my car looks, if I would have gotten my car, I would have been dead,” Scott said. “I was literally about to go walk into [it].”
The freelance shutterbug found his home-on-wheels upside down and smashed and spotted two survivors climbing out of the rubble — signs of how close he’d come to death, he said.
He soon learned his white Beemer was totaled, rendering his makeshift home useless, and forcing him to spend the night in a shelter, he said.
“I’m devastated and heartbroken,” he told The Post in an exclusive interview Wednesday. “I was homeless and my car was the only thing I had.”
“Now I don’t even have that,” he said. “It literally displaced me all over again.”
The top floor of the parking garage on Ann and Nassau streets collapsed at around 4:10 p.m., crushing cars and tossing SUVs in a terrifying scene of destruction.
Scott said he had been sleeping and working in the ride and taking showers at shelters instead of living on the streets.
“I wanted that because to me it was like a dream car and a dream opportunity. I love BMWs I was like, ‘Hey let me get this… let me live somewhere nice,’” he said.
“It wasn’t too hard. It wasn’t comfortable but it wasn’t the worst place,” said Scott, who works for Macmillan Publishing. “I got it because rent is so damn high.”
He’s now dealing with insurance claims and police reports, along with the chaotic shelter system, he said.
“I worked hard for my car just to have it taken away with all my belongings inside,” he said. “I have to start over with nothing now.”
Additional reporting by Natalie O’Neill
