{"id":1244,"date":"2006-07-03T09:51:40","date_gmt":"2006-07-03T17:51:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2006\/07\/when_fireworks_are_outlawed_only_outlaws_will_have_fireworks.html"},"modified":"2008-01-24T19:14:06","modified_gmt":"2008-01-25T00:14:06","slug":"when_fireworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/07\/when_fireworks.html","title":{"rendered":"When Fireworks Are Outlawed Only Outlaws Will Have Fireworks"},"content":{"rendered":"

A look at the illicit firework trade in the Bronx<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Pyrotechnics peddlers are hawking fireworks in broad daylight on a Bronx street corner, despite a citywide crackdown leading up to the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n

“Whenever you’re looking for fireworks, just go to the beauty salon – my mom owns it,” one pusher known only as Paulie assured a customer in Hunts Point last week.<\/p>\n

The peddler keeps his arsenal of explosives — everything from sparklers to rockets to M-88 munitions — at his house nearby, located just a block from the Ladder 48\/Engine 94 firehouse and a Bronx charter elementary school.<\/p>\n

“I can get you anything you want,” he bragged.<\/p>\n

Paulie eagerly sold one customer $23 worth of fireworks — a dazzling array that included eight M-88s, the slightly smaller versions of the notorious M-80 explosives; four 10-pack Howling Wolf Rockets; one 12-pack of Howling Wolf Pack Bottle Rockets; one 10-pack of Jumping Jacks; two six-packs of Morning Glory sparklers; and three “lady fingers.”<\/p>\n

He tossed in a $2 MoonBeam Missile rocket.<\/p>\n

Paulie said that for $150, he could sell the customer a deluxe boxed package that “will put on a good show for at least an hour — your kids will love it.”<\/p>\n

The illegal sales take place in plain sight — and kids in the area actually steer customers to Paulie, who hawks his wares while sporting knockoff designer sunglasses and a Jesus tattoo on his forearm.<\/p>\n

He apparently works with a teen middleman, who keeps his own, much-smaller supply of fireworks for sale — and keeps an eye out for the cops.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A look at the illicit firework trade in the Bronx: Pyrotechnics peddlers are hawking fireworks in broad daylight on a Bronx street corner, despite a citywide crackdown leading up to the Fourth of July. “Whenever you’re looking for fireworks, just go to the beauty salon – my mom owns it,” one pusher known only as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the_bronx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}