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It’s a Whopper of a problem.
A Burger King blocks from City Hall is so overrun with drug dealers, junkies and unhinged vagrants that an angry neighbor is suing the fast-food operator for $15 million for helping to turn “Fulton Street into an open air drug bazaar.”
A group of eight to 10 “professional drug dealers” are allegedly having it their way at the BK at 106 Fulton St., near Dutch Street, which they use as a “base of operation, selling illegal drugs either at the entrance . . . or during inclement weather, selling illegal drugs within the Burger King restaurant itself,” according to the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit filed by Kevin Kaufman, who has lived on the block for 20 years.
“We’ve reached out to every direction we can and the only ones that seem to be responsive and listening are the cops,” said Kaufman, 69, a married filmmaker who raised his two kids in FiDi. “Cops are doing everything they can to get rid of these people, but they’re handcuffed. It’s this idiotic bail reform. They have arrested a couple of people, but they are back within 24 hours.”
There have been two arrests and 143 calls to 911 related to the Burger King’s address since Jan. 1, 2023, according to the NYPD, which would not provide a detailed breakdown of the emergency calls.
This week, The Post observed:
“This is around the corner from the mayor, his office is right there, and it’s like ‘Dude, clean up your neighborhood,” fumed another resident, 47, who has lived on Fulton Street for 15 years and asked for anonymity.
The restaurant “is never busy, the only people in there are poor, homeless or dealing drugs,” he said. “At least there’d be a mix [if] you go to McDonald’s . . . you’ll never see people from the neighborhood in there because it’s a sh-tshow.”
“How is this Burger King staying in business and why isn’t it doing anything about it?” wondered another worried neighbor, 40, who added, “The people that scare me are the people this crowd attracts. They’re not mentally safe. . . . There are hours of the night where we no longer feel safe walking our dog. That’s a problem.”
In addition to seeing people every day who are “clearly f–ked up on drugs,” he said, about once a month the homeless hanging around have “an absolute terrorizing screaming match” and just a few weeks ago, a person was found passed out on the pavement next door to the Burger King.
A Jan. 4 video posted on X by the account Fulton St Coalition shows two men in a wild brawl, with one body-slamming another into the pavement in a scene out of professional wrestling.
In addition to seeing people every day who are “clearly f–ked up on drugs,” he said, about once a month the homeless hanging around have “an absolute terrorizing screaming match” and just a few weeks ago, a person was found passed out on the pavement next door to the Burger King.
“There’s no restaurant patrons, no one goes in there to eat,” said neighbor Evan Gillman, who sees the same faces regularly outside the restaurant. “These guys are here all day.”
Major crimes in the First Precinct, which covers Burger King and Fulton Center, are up 2.4% so far this year compared to the same period in 2023, according to NYPD data, including a 14% jump in felony assaults, a 52% spike in burglaries and 7% increase in petty larcenies.
“Quality of life complaints remain a real concern to residents in all city neighborhoods,” a department spokesman said. “The NYPD deploys our officers where crime is reported in response to community complaints and will continue to address these conditions as the public demands and expects we should.”
Kaufman said his beef is with the fast food joint’s owner, Lalmir Sultanzada. Sultanzada, 66, of Melville, Long Island, an immigrant from Afghanistan who owns several fast food franchises, including Popeye’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, and others in the five boroughs and Long Island.
“He doesn’t take responsibility, he throws it on the lap of the cops instead of hiring security himself and policing his own store,” fumed Kaufman, whose work includes producing the first season of “The Real Housewives of Orange County” in 2006 and the 2018 A&E documentary “Gotti: Godfather and Son.”
“Fulton Street is now a neighborhood in crisis,” Kaufman claimed in court papers in which he alleged the gaggle out front are “professional drug dealers who have long criminal records and are well known among local law enforcement.”
Kaufman’s multimillion lawsuit against the restaurant and Burger King’s corporate office accuses them of violating New York’s private nuisance law — which is intended to prevent intentional or unreasonable interference with someone’s enjoyment of their property.