Store's Coronavirus Message Keeps Bed-Stuy Neighbors Awake

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — All-hours warnings blaring from a Family Dollar in Bed-Stuy have some locked-down-for-coronavirus neighbors begging for peace and quiet.

The Park Avenue store's hidden outdoor speaker tells everyone and no one in particular on the block that they're being recorded. It warns against shoplifting and says to practice social distancing, even when the store is closed for the night.

And it's getting on Rebecca Horne's last nerve. She's riding out the pandemic in her nearby home, finding her work and sleep interrupted by Family Dollar announcements echoing up and down the block.

"I literally cannot sleep," she said.

Noise complaints jumped 23 percent across New York City since a statewide "stay-at-home" order and other social distancing measures sent city dwellers indoors, according to a recent Renthop study.

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No borough had more 311 calls about noise than Brooklyn either, the study found. Operators logged 3,430 noise complaints from March 20 to 28, the first full week of coronavirus lockdown.

But Horne and her neighbors' Family Dollar problem can't be considered simply a symptom of coronavirus cabin fever.

They've lodged 12 noise complaints against the 861 Park Ave. store going back to 2016, according to city 311 data.

Horne has heard some announcements so many times they're etched into her brain. Her natural cadence changed as she channeled one from memory: "All activities around this location are being monitored and recorded."

She said she's not even the store's closest neighbor.

"The Sumner Houses is literally being blasted every day on the hour at night," she said.

The announcement can heard far down the block on a video shot by a member of the Park Avenue Block Association.

The noise was bad enough before, Horne said. Now, with the coronavirus outbreak, she said it's wearing on her mental health — and that of her boyfriend, a doctor at Newark Hospital.

They can't sleep and Horne worries how that affects her boyfriend's resilience against the coronavirus. The speaker now seems cranked so loud its late-night social distancing announcements come out distorted, she said.

"It couldn’t be worse at this point," she said.

Patch tried to reach the store's management but was told no one was available to pick up the phone.

Horne said she's complained to the store but was given the impression it had to do with corporate policy. Her block has taken complaints to NYPD, Community Board 3 and Councilman Robert Cornegy, she said.

She also has receipts. No, not Family Dollar receipts — records of emails back-and-forth with NYPD officers and other neighbor complaints.

"We've all sort of given up on making complaints because nothing is being done," she said.

It looks like the coronavirus renewed the fight. The last two 311 complaints about the store came in on April 4 and 5, according to city data.

As with all the other complaints, the calls' descriptors were two words: "Loud talking."

Patch reached out to Family Dollar for comment but hadn't yet received a response as of Wednesday afternoon.

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