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Knives no longer poke from ground near bus stop

After planting them in the ground near his pizzeria to block a shortcut, a man decides the liability is too much.

By THOMAS LAKE
Published October 13, 2006

LAND O'LAKES - Fifteen yards from the bus stop, a knife blade bloomed from the sand like a Viet Cong booby trap.

Wednesday, 3:29 p.m. Two preteen boys emerged from a yellow school bus and crossed the pizzeria parking lot, heading straight for the blade. They did not look down.

The pizzeria's owner had planted the trap two days earlier as part of a low-budget barrier to a shortcut to the north. Bill Najmark, 54, also known as Pizzaman, had strewn about 50 feet worth of pipes and stakes and knives to stop the denizens of Lake Shore Drive from using the muddy track that crosses his land. He was tired of their brashness and of the dirt in his asphalt parking lot.

He was especially tired of April Perez, 25, who used the shortcut every day to pick up her 8-year-old son from the bus stop. Najmark said he had put up barriers before, and she had simply mowed them over.

"So I figured," he said, "if she wants to mow, I'll give her a flat."

Hence the knives. He put them there Monday after he and Perez quarreled in front of his pizzeria, Ally's Hideaway, on U.S. 41 just south of State Road 52. Ugly words flew, and Perez said Najmark punched her car. A sheriff's deputy came. The State Attorney's Office is investigating Najmark on a possible charge of disorderly conduct.

"That's the problem," Najmark said. "Nobody likes me because I'm right about everything."

The bus stop will move to Lake Shore Drive on Tuesday. Wednesday was the second of five days the handful of children would have to cross Najmark's line of demarcation.

The boys approached the blade. They walked past, missing it by inches, and headed north for home.

Najmark decided the liability was too much. One knife was already gone. He grabbed one of the remaining knives and kicked over the other one. He waved the blade.

"If I were going to cut you," he told a reporter, apparently joking, "you'd already be bleeding."

There had been three blades pointing up Tuesday afternoon. Now there were none. But Najmark had reinforced the barrier with a chest-high yellow pole.

Wind blew diesel fuel fumes from the highway. The sun looked like a white marble behind thickening clouds. Perez was scheduled to pick up her son just after 4, but neither one showed.

"I guess she ain't coming today," Najmark said. He jokingly added, "Maybe the kid is sick. He stepped on a knife."

Thomas Lake can be reached at tlake@sptimes.com or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6245.

[Last modified October 13, 2006, 06:23:43]