Widow returns to rubble of her home

Police say looters were chased from Plum Island site

It's been a devastating week for Geri Buzzotta, who was told by police Saturday that the pile of rubble that was once her Plum Island oceanfront home had been picked through by looters.

Buzzotta's house was deemed unsafe the night before Thanksgiving and it was quickly demolished to save it from falling into the Atlantic Ocean. Buzzotta, a 79-year-old widow, had no time to gather her clothes or valuables. She returned to the scene this weekend and said she was shocked when the Newbury police chief told her of the looters.

"He said, 'Geri, you wouldn't believe how many looters I had to shoo away,' " she recalled in a phone interview yesterday. "I said, 'What are you talking about? My God, what do they expect to find?' "

Police stationed an officer to guard the crumbled house until its ruins were mostly removed last week, for which Buzzotta paid $7,000. Anyone crossing the police tape around the rubble could have been arrested for trespassing, Newbury Police chief Michael Reilly told the Newburyport Daily News.

"Geri Buzzotta's entire life is in that rubble pile, and these people have no concern about bringing backpacks and metal detectors to this area to see if they can benefit from her misfortune," Reilly told the News. "It sickens me to have to keep police officers posted at this site to keep these vultures away."

Marc Sarkady, who also lives on the shoreline, said he has seen many spectators pass by the site, some with metal detectors, but saw no one stealing.

"There were many gawkers, people who came to look, walking around the property," said Sarkady, president of the Plum Island Foundation, a group seeking to protect the island from erosion. "I live here and observe the flow on the beach all the time. There were lots of people watching."

He called the looting "very unusual." He said many residents consider the area safe and often don't lock doors.

"Obviously," Sarkady said, "anyone who's a reasonable person would be a little outraged about looting and saddened that that would even be the situation."

The looters may have expected to find more than they got. When Buzzotta returned to the site where her house once stood, she was able to salvage only a few items: a shoe, two sterling spoons from her marriage 57 years ago, and a photograph of her with her late husband, Mario, at a high school reunion.

Buzzotta has another precious reminder of her husband, who died two years ago: his 18-karat gold necklace depicting the Sacred Heart, a Roman Catholic icon. On a whim when she woke up Wednesday morning, she decided to put the necklace on.

"I looked at it in the morning, and the window was facing it," she said. "I mean, this sounds crazy, but it's true. The sun was shining on it, and I thought, 'Oh, geez, let me try that on.' I put it on and I said, 'Ah, hell, I'll leave it on.' So I left it on. And that's the only thing I have left of him."

She found one other sign of hope.

Her son, Paul, was digging through the rubble Saturday and found a sandblasted, light-green, heart-shaped piece of glass. Buzzotta said it's an omen for her family - her three children and eight grandchildren.

"Everything else was taken away," she said, "but love never dies."