Edgar Sandoval and Dave Goldiner, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
A dramatic YouTube video showing a city tow truck crunching a parked SUV in snowbound Brooklyn Heights went viral Tuesday with more than 200,000 people watching the clip in a few hours.
The caught-on-tape slam-a-thon shows a stuck front-end loader bashing into the parked vehicle as a tow truck tries to yank the loader out of a snowy parking spot.
The yellow snow-mover careens into the city-owned Ford Expedition, then strikes it several more times as it lurches out of the spot.
On the way out, the plow crashes into the window of the SUV, and also sideswipes another parked car.
It could had been completely avoided," said the wife of Eugene McArdle, 53, whose city-owned SUV was crushed. "It was a poor decision."
McArdle is the emergency liaison for the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development and needs the vehicle for his job, a spokeswoman said.
The SUV is a 1995 Expedition with 95,000 miles on it that the agency inherited from the city Department of Environmental Protection.
"We're happy no one was hurt," the spokeswoman said. "It's just a car."
The video was shot from an apartment window around 9:15 a.m. Monday, after the snow had stopped and the blizzard moved away from the city.
A crowd of neighbors gathered outside near the corner of Joralemon and Hicks streets as the city tow truck started trying to pull out the snow-mover.
The onlookers warned the tow truck driver to be careful squeezing out of the snowbound street. Instead he blasted his way out, the video shows.
Along with the city-owned SUV, which has "Official" plates, the front-end loader also clipped the McArdles' personal Toyota sedan.
"There were about 30 people out, yelling to stop," the wife said. "They chose to disregard what we were saying."
The clip started going viral after it was aired on CNN Tuesday morning and quickly attracted 219,000 views within a couple of hours.
Asked about the incident at a press conference, Mayor Bloomberg said anyone who suffered property damage should file a claim with the city.
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