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Apt. Complex Accidentally Finds NYPD Safe House for Undercover Officers: Listen to the 911 Call

911 Call From New Jersey Superintendent Inadvertently Finding Apartment Rented by Undercover NYPD Released

This July 13, 2011, photo shows the door to to apartment in a complex in New Brunswick, N.J., that was rented by an undercover NYPD officer. (Photo: AP/Matt Apuzzo)

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — It’s an audiotape the New York Police Department hoped you would never hear.

A building superintendent at an apartment complex just off the Rutgers University campus called the New Brunswick Police 911 line in June 2009. He said his staff had been conducting a routine inspection and came across something suspicious.

“What’s suspicious?” the dispatcher asked.

“Suspicious in the sense that the apartment has about – has no furniture except two beds, has no clothing, has New York City Police Department radios.”

“Really?” the dispatcher asked, her voice rising with surprise.

The caller, Salil Sheth, had stumbled upon one of the NYPD’s biggest secrets: a safe house, a place where undercover officers working well outside the department’s jurisdiction could lie low and coordinate surveillance. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the NYPD, with training and guidance from the CIA, has monitored the activities of Muslims in New York and far beyond. Detectives infiltrated mosques, eavesdropped in cafes and kept tabs on Muslim student groups, including at Rutgers.

The NYPD kept files on innocent sermons, recorded the names of political organizers in police documents and built databases of where Muslims lived and shopped, even where they were likely to gather to watch sports. Out-of-state operations, like the one in New Brunswick, were one aspect of this larger intelligence-gathering effort. The Associated Press previously described the discovery of the NYPD inside the New Jersey apartment, but police now have released the tape of the 911 call and other materials after a legal fight.

“There’s computer hardware, software, you know, just laying around,” the caller continued. “There’s pictures of terrorists. There’s pictures of our neighboring building that they have.”

“In New Brunswick?” the dispatcher asked, sounding as confused as the caller.

911 Call From New Jersey Superintendent Inadvertently Finding Apartment Rented by Undercover NYPD Released

This is the New Brunswick apartment complex rented by a NYPD officer. (Photo: AP/Matt Apuzzo)

The AP requested a copy of the 911 tape last year. Under pressure from the NYPD, the New Brunswick Police Department refused. After the AP sued, the city this week turned over the tape and emails that described the NYPD’s efforts to keep the recording a secret.

Listen to the 911 call:

The call sent New Brunswick police and the FBI rushing to the apartment complex. Officers and agents were surprised at what they found. None had been told that the NYPD was in town.

At the NYPD, the bungled operation was an embarrassment. It made the department look amateurish and forced it to ask the FBI to return the department’s materials.

The emails highlight the sometimes convoluted arguments the NYPD has used to justify its out-of-state activities, which have been criticized by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and some members of Congress. The NYPD has infiltrated and photographed Muslim businesses and mosques in New Jersey, monitored the Internet postings of Muslim college students across the Northeast and traveled as far away as New Orleans to infiltrate and build files on liberal advocacy groups.

In February, NYPD’s deputy commissioner for legal matters, Andrew Schaffer, told reporters that detectives can operate outside New York because they aren’t conducting official police duties.

“They’re not acting as police officers in other jurisdictions,” Schaffer said.

In trying to keep the 911 tape under wraps, however, the NYPD made no mention of the fact that its officers were not acting as police. In fact, Lt. Cmdr. William McGroarty and Assistant Chief Thomas Galati argued that releasing the recording would jeopardize investigations and endanger the people and buildings.

Further, the apartment, No. 1076, was rented by an undercover NYPD officer using a fake name that he was still using, New Brunswick attorneys told the AP.

“Such identification will place the safety of any officers identified, as well as the undercover operatives with whom they work, at risk,” Galati wrote in a letter to New Brunswick.

The city deleted that name from the copy of the tape that it released.

Reached by phone Tuesday, McGroarty declined to discuss the New Brunswick operation. But the recording offers a glimpse inside the safe house: a small apartment with two computers, dozens of black plastic boxes and no furniture or clothes except one suit.

“And pictures of our neighboring buildings?” the dispatcher asked.

“Yes, the Matrix building,” Sheth replied, referring to a local developer. “There’s pictures of terrorists. There’s literature on the Muslim religion.”

New York authorities have encouraged people like Sheth to call 911. In its “Eight Signs of Terrorism,” people are encouraged to call the police if they see evidence of surveillance, information gathering, suspicious activities or anything that looks out of place.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the police department’s right to go anywhere in the country in search of terrorists without telling local police. And New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa has said he‘s seen no evidence that the NYPD’s efforts violated his state’s laws.

Muslim groups, however, have sued to shut down the NYPD programs. Civil rights lawyers have asked a federal judge to decide whether the spying violates federal rules that were set up to prevent a repeat of NYPD abuses of the 1950s, when police Red Squads spied on student groups and activists in search of communists.

Comments (33)

  • Twilight Struggler
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 2:20pm

    “He said his staff had been conducting a routine inspection…”

    What? No warrant? Can a building superintendent do that?

    Report Post » Twilight Struggler  
    • BobtheMoron
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 2:39pm

      Yep. That right is in almost all leases. Should have changed the lock.

      Report Post » BobtheMoron  
    • battles
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 5:14pm

      Exactly. I used to always change the locks on the apartment doors when I had to live in one. The management might complain when they found out, but I refused to change them back. I started doing this after I returned home one evening to find that the exterminator had been in and had taken part of a stack of quarters I had on by desk.

      Report Post » battles  
    • Stoic one
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 8:00pm

      In Ohio 24 hrs notice is needed; so that you can ‘clean up’ your private stuff

      Report Post » Stoic one  
    • Josh2007
      Posted on July 26, 2012 at 3:30am

      Inn keepers have the same right. They actually have the right to enter the room once a day.

      Report Post »  
    • 1956
      Posted on July 26, 2012 at 9:55am

      I had gotten permission from the apartment manager to put a deadbolt on my apartment door when I was single and living alone. They did not have a copy of the key until I moved out. They actually had to coordinate a day to come to my apartment to inspect, so I knew ahead of time when they would be coming and I could let them in to inspect. The management (at least in Indiana) must give notice to the residents the dates that inspections will take place, so they don’t walk in on someone in their apartment when they are unaware of what is going on.

      Report Post » 1956  
  • thegreatcarnac
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 2:01pm

    Bloomberg has always gone too far in everything he does. He is on a power trip. He is the mayor of NYC. To me…that means that he rules over roaches…nothing else.

    Report Post »  
  • Jerbear1098
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:24pm

    What I find disturbing is, Bloomberg thinks he can go anywhere in the country? WTF ??? Since when is he the federal police? He thinks he can restrict firearm sales and use outside his own CITY. Yes, he JUST a mayor of a CITY.

    Report Post » Jerbear1098  
  • drphil69
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:20pm

    “New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the police department’s right to go anywhere in the country in search of terrorists without telling local police.”

    In Mayor Bloomberg’s police state, HIS police can go anywhere, do anything… BUT yesterday he said the police should “go on strike” until “reasonable” gun control measures are enacted.

    In other words, Bloomberg is KING, and he would let criminals run wild with no police, in order to get guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens.

    THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO BE ARMED. TYRANY IS AT OUR DOOR.

    BE PREPARED.

    Report Post »  
  • Zuitsuit
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:12pm

    So the apartment complex didnt actualy find the safe house as the MORONIC title of this article states but it was actually the apartment manager who found the safe house. Too bad , at first i thought we could get the apartment complex to find Jimmy Hoffas body. American journalism SUCKS

    Report Post »  
  • Secret Squirrel
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:11pm

    .
    No hookers?
    Then it sounds like they were doing a good job!
    Keep it up.

    Report Post » Secret Squirrel  
  • historyguy48
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:06pm

    Comrades the only thing I can say is “Good job” to the super. Even if it was cops, he reported a possible terrorist hideout.

    Report Post » historyguy48  
    • macpappy
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 1:24pm

      Sure, if it is OK with you that some apartment complex employee has the rigth to “inspect” you home without you being there. Comrade, you overlook the violation of the basic right to privacy, and the profiling used by said manager.

      Report Post » macpappy  
  • TruthPolice60
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:54am

    The ACLU types and other liberals of limited intellectual capacity who would complain about an operation of this nature would be the same ones crying that we should have known a terrorist attact was going to take place before it happened.

    What do you think counter intellegence is? You don’t just sit back and wait for terrorists acts to be committed and then go out and investigate. You profile certain targets from leads, associations etc. and keep an eye on these people. My focus would would be on mosques, muslims, occupy types, and other subversives.

    The NYPD is a top notch outfit that has THE BEST anti terrorism efforts in the country. They have nothing to be embarrased about from this operation. Oh, they didn’t tell the FBI… ? I hate to say it but the FBI under Obama and Holder is compromised.

    Report Post »  
    • Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:56pm

      @TP60

      ” I hate to say it but the FBI under Obama and Holder is compromised.”

      Um hum, and the NYPD under Bloomberg is not? Makes sense.

      Report Post » Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve  
  • Individualism
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:48am

    State inspection? wow a fascist police state and it just appeared that the person in the apartment is low on money and pictures of terrorists? why don’t they describe their judgement, sounds like profiling and nothing more to me. Watch out you could be a terrorist if your apartment is not loaded full of stuff and if you have pictures of people that look different.

    Report Post » Individualism  
    • Individualism
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:53am

      here is my profile of a terrorist anyone who murders someone and that happens to be our own law enforcement and our troops abroad more than anyone else. of course most of them are not but they do more of it than anyone else. hypocrites much, our gov’t is ran by criminals.

      Report Post » Individualism  
  • TJexcite
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:40am

    To find this safe house is better than having the management finding a stash the level of the one in Colorado after something. If only more superintendent where worried about what was going one in the apartment they could stopped more than a new gun law would.

    Report Post » TJexcite  
  • kaydeebeau
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:38am

    Yo Liz Klimas…nothing like using non-nuetral, propogandaesque words in your article……since they are not direct quotes they are the product of your writing??

    the NYPD, the bungled operation …
    emails highlight the sometimes convoluted arguments …..
    The NYPD kept files on innocent sermons……

    In objective news reporting it used to be that ones choice of judgemental adjectives was to be limited so as not to inaccurately color the story.

    Report Post » kaydeebeau  
    • Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:46am

      So if they have files on sermons then you assume that they are all criminal? Who’s making the leaps?

      Report Post » Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve  
    • Calm Voice of Reason
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:48am

      She did not write this. The exact same article was also posted at http://bigstory.ap.org/article/what-confused-911-caller-outs-nypd-spying-nj#overlay-context=article/uk-q2-gdp-down-07-pct-deeper-expected but under some other people’s byline. Looks like the Blaze is no different than any other turn-key blog site that scrapes AP stories and puts them under the bylines of their staff writers.

      Report Post » Calm Voice of Reason  
    • bikerr
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:11pm

      @Calm Voice of Reason—Really? My version has a (AP) byline. Guess you aren’t so calming.

      Report Post »  
    • kaydeebeau
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:16pm

      how about just saying – kept files of sermons, the NYPD operation, highlight arguments – all without the colorful commentary ……

      If my comment was regarding using adjectives unecessarily would it be more likely to suspect I didn’t mean to replace the adjectives but rather to remove them? …..who is making leaps again?

      Report Post » kaydeebeau  
    • kaydeebeau
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:18pm

      oops – sorry Liz I didn’t see the (AP) – my bad – ok now my comments are directed to the AP though now I understand why they are using such language – intended for it to be propaganda-esque

      Report Post » kaydeebeau  
    • Calm Voice of Reason
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:42pm

      Bikerr: I see a “dateline” that reads “New Brunswick, N.J. (AP)“ and a ”byline” that tells me the story was posted today by Liz Klimas. Granted, no claim is made that the story was written by her, but I do wonder whether changing an article’s title constitutes the extent of the “journalism” one should expect from The Blaze.

      Report Post » Calm Voice of Reason  
  • Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:29am

    Look, radical islam is a threat to us all. BUT, the race to security has unleashed a vicious dog. When this apparatus is put into motion it won’t go away…it MUST have a target at all times. It needs an enemy. Right now it is radical Islam. But it is legitimate to think that it can be anything deemed a threat to the state.

    If you organize under the banner of “returning to [blank]“ or ”restoring [blank]“ or ”taking back [blank]” are you not a threat to the current state/environment/status quo? Where does the line get drawn as defining a “threat”?

    The biggest mistake that we as American made after 9/11 was giving government carte blanche to “protect” us. It had no limits, no fail safe, no transparency. Our zeal to get the muslims (to which I’m sure there will be posts in this article about “good job NYPD”) only opened the Pandora’s box to surveilance without limits and an undefinable definition (ha!) of what an enemy of the state is.

    Report Post » Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve  
    • historyguy48
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 12:05pm

      Comrade I really don’t recall we the people being allowed to vote on homeland security, etc. They just did it, and the Constitution be damned!
      We are so far down this slippery slope that there is no way to get back up the slope!

      Report Post » historyguy48  
  • AJAYW
    Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:14am

    You can bet that obama and holder have the same type of surveillance going on across the usa.

    Report Post »  
    • FREDD The WILSON
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:29am

      But Obama and Holder are not surveying Muslims they are watching conservatives, Tea party and Christian groups.

      Report Post » FREDD The WILSON  
    • Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
      Posted on July 25, 2012 at 11:42am

      @Fredd,

      I agree with you, but We The People handed them the mechanism to do so. The answer is self reliance and local police work and self defense. Not federal dragnets. The answer isn’t to redirect the machine at muslims. The machine shouldn’t exist.

      Report Post » Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve  

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