Lenny Dykstra’s illegal rooming house is really nailin’ the quality of life in one New Jersey town.
That’s according to council members and neighbors of the former MLB great in Linden, where Dykstra, 55, has crammed as many as 10 people into his two-story home on a tree-lined street now plagued with oversize piles of trash, transient tenants and physical confrontations, as well as alleged prostitution and drug use.
“It all started when he moved in,” neighbor Linda Graham told NJ Advance Media. “There’s been two overdoses. There’s been a scuffle on the front lawn. There’s been people who are here today, gone tomorrow. We don’t know who these people are and we are afraid.”
Dykstra allegedly rents out rooms in his Stockton Circle home for $1,000 a month each, which violates municipal ordinances, according to Linden City Councilwoman Gretchen Hickey, citing Dykstra’s advertisements on websites for the rooms.
“There’s been 10 people living there at a time,” Hickey told NJ.com. “He even made the garage into a room.”
Neighbors once saw someone toss a yellowish liquid out a second-floor window and have complained of hearing “building noises” coming from the home as if someone was using a hammer, Hickey said.
“Dude, way too soon,” Dykstra said in a tweet when asked for a reaction to the story. “Have some respect. Right now here we’re remembering one of the great ones.”
Dykstra — a former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies outfielder — has served more than six months in prison after pleading guilty in 2012 for bankruptcy fraud and other crimes. Four years later, his memoir, “House of Nails: A Memoir of Life on the Edge,” landed on the New York Times’ best-seller list.
City records obtained by NJ Advance Media show that construction code inspectors visited the home on Jan. 10 and found a bedroom on the first floor, as well as four bedrooms, a laundry room, an office and two bathrooms on the second floor.
Each room, however, had locks that Dykstra was unable to open with a key, inspectors told the outlet.
“As the owner who actually resides in his house, he should be able to open [the doors],” inspectors wrote.
Police in Linden responded to the home on Sept. 13, noting that “multiple on-site occupants” said they rented rooms at the single-family residence. That prompted a summons for Dykstra, who paid a $500 fine a month later, according to the website.
Dykstra was also ordered to “remove all illegal occupants” within a month or face additional penalties. A review of police records indicates that cops in Linden responded to the home several times last year for reports of fights and noise.
Dykstra also called police in December 2017 to report that his paintings had been stolen while he was on a trip to South Dakota.
Linden Mayor Derek Armstead, meanwhile, confirmed to WABC that rooming houses in the city are prohibited.
“I’ll take care of it,” Armstead told the station. “If he’s not in compliance with the current ordinances that are on the books, we will take him to task.”
The allegations are the latest chapter in Dykstra’s cringeworthy life after baseball, including a bankruptcy declaration in 2009 that claimed he owed more than $31 million while only having $50,000 in assets.
Most recently, Dykstra pleaded not guilty in October to drug and terroristic threat charges stemming from an altercation with an Uber driver in Linden, where Dykstra claimed the driver threatened to kidnap him after requesting a new destination.
Dykstra said he was “literally in fear of my life” after the driver locked the vehicle’s doors and sped off, but the driver alleged that the former Met held a gun to his head, although no weapon was found. Police did find cocaine and methamphetamine in Dykstra’s possession, leading to the drug charges.
If convicted, Dykstra faces up to five years in prison.
Efforts to reach Dykstra or an attorney representing him Thursday afternoon were unsuccessful.
