The Upper West Side fixer-upper that Today cohost Ann Curry bought for $2.9 million has become a hobo hotspot, The New York Post reports.
The TV journalist and her husband, Brian Ross, purchased the four-story townhouse in 2003. Shortly after, they began a massive renovation that included building an unauthorized 18-foot-high penthouse. (They stopped all major construction five years ago following a series of Buildings Department violations.)
The homeless man was discovered Saturday, and eight cops were sent to remove him from the property around 9 a.m. The New York Post caught up with him at a nearby McDonald's, where he admitted that he had no idea the residence belonged to Curry, 54.
"Ann Curry means crap to me!" he shouted, refusing to give his name or age. "The reason I lived there was because they chased me out of Central Park."
"I'll go back if someone says, 'Here's the key. Maintain the building,'" he added.
The vagrant said he spent the majority of last winter seeking warmth in the 3,700-square-foot-home. "I've been living there for about a year now," he said. "I'm not a drug addict; I just don't have a place to sleep."
Because he was caught sleeping in the vestibule (and not completely inside the building), the man was not arrested. Instead, he was taken to a nearby homeless shelter.
Curry, who currently lives downtown near Gramercy Park with Ross and their two children, McKenzie and William, "is currently traveling to Africa to cover the humanitarian crisis and could not be reached for comment," an NBC spokeswoman said.
