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This Town Is Charging A New Jersey Man To Decorate His Own Home For Christmas

A New Jersey town is forcing one man to pay $2,000 a day for Christmas decorations on his own home. According to  NJ , Tom Apruzzi ha...

A New Jersey town is forcing one man to pay $2,000 a day for Christmas decorations on his own home.
According to NJ, Tom Apruzzi has transformed his Old Bridge home into a winter wonderland for 15 years with an automated display and synchronized music, attracting up to 1,000 spectators a night. His neighbors have since grown tired of the 70,000-Christmas light display and have now enlisted the help of the local government to quash his spreading of holiday cheer.



"Apruzzi said his show puts smiles on attendees' faces during what can be a difficult season of the year," reports NJ. "But his neighbors said the crowds and cars parked on the road make it dangerous for everyone."
Old Bridge officials told Tom and his wife, Kris, that they must pay $2,000 per night for police security, which would include the cost of "paying officers overtime for the evening, moveable light posts to light the street, and fuel to power the movable light posts."
In previous years, the streets would be patrolled by auxiliary police officers with no experience in crowd control at no cost. As the crowds have grown over the years, city officials say the situation has become untenable. Apruzzi now claims he has been subjected to "bureaucratic baloney" and has now started a online fundraiserof $75,000 to pay the fees. Whether or not he raises the money, Apruzzi, a Catholic, says his First Amendment rights have been violated.
"We're not gonna listen to what the police have to say," he said. "It is my First Amendment rights; it has to do with my religion."
While Apruzzi's neighbors may not like the light show, the city residents love it, and have arguably been his biggest supporters. In 2017, when the city council considered zoning the area for residential parking only, people outside the neighborhood showed up for a public meeting to voice their disapproval.
"A lot of pro-light people do not live over there," Mayor Owen Henry said, who lives near Apruzzi's house. "We have to make sure it as safe as we possibly can."
Apruzzi's home went national in 2014 on ABC's "Great Christmas Light Fight." Since then, people have traveled from New York and Pennsylvania to see it. The popularity has truly enraged some people in the neighborhood and some have expressed it to Apruzzi violently.
"Apruzzi said someone regularly spat on his truck," reports NJ. "Once, someone shot out his window with a BB gun, forcing him to install surveillance cameras. The incidents have pushed Apruzzi, a resident for 44 years, to consider moving towns to a neighborhood 'that is Christmas-light friendly.'"
Mayor Owen Henry and Police Chief William Volkert say they do not want Apruzzi to "pull the plug" on his light show, only take responsibility for crowd control. One possible solution might be allowing people to park off-site and shuttling them to the 12-minute light show. Like all potential solutions, that has a whole host of other problems.
"The township, officials said, won't allow people to park on its property for liability purposes, and Apruzzi would likely have to find someone who owns a private parking lot," reports NJ. "Apruzzi said he would need an additional $1,000 a day to shuttle attendees from a nearby parking lot, though Henry questioned the figure."
Apruzzi's light show has never been a business. Frequently, he collects charitable donations from visitors. Previously, he raised $8,000 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and $13,000 for Homes For Our Troops.

8 comments

  1. Sorry, but this is nothing but ego driven bad taste ....

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  2. ...perhaps it's just that you are an ass hole...most likely...GFY

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  3. There is some jackass in Wadsworth Ohio near me that covered his entire house with lights just so he could be on TV!!!

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  4. they are LIGHT HOARDERS ..... more is not better.

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  5. He needs to live in the middle of nowhere so not to "offend" his neighbors with the circus. I had a guy in my town every Xmas do a display like that but he had a huge parking lot next to his home where folks could park. Mercifully he passed on and his kids decided after one year to knock it off with the circus display.....

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  6. The turkey bragged it was 25,000 lights and he bought out many stores to do this circus....

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  7. It looks like a nicely done display, but perhaps it's gotten too far out of control. In the US, we have certain rights, but they are only ours until we start trespassing on others. I'm sure this guy's neighbors feel violated that there is no longer any parking on "their" street and their evenings are not as peaceful as they would like.

    The display either needs to be shut down or moved someplace else in the city where the traffic and thousands of viewers are better accommodated. I don't recall anything in the Bible or Catholic tradition that requires adherents to construct the biggest holiday display possible so that argument doesn't hold water. Not that it would in any case. If I were a voodoo practitioner in a sect that required I place a deconstructed animal on a stake in my front yard twice a week, I think that the neighbors would have a good case against me.

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