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William J. Krywos, 49, has had a history of run-ins with the law, including causing a mid-1990s blackout that affected more than 32,000 Bergen County customers.
More recently, Krywos had a series of conflicts with no fewer than three different residents who've lived next door to his Duncan Road home over the years -- always in the winter, police said.
The way defense attorney Frank Lucianna once explained it, "there is a pipe on his neighbor’s house that emits a little bit of steam. It’s connected with his heating system.”
After getting into a dispute over the pipe with a neighbor in 2015, police said, Krywos used some type of launcher to fire excrement at the man’s house and his 6-year-old daughter's backyard swing set.
Authorities charged him at the time with stalking, criminal mischief and child endangerment after finding two vats of feces at his home.
Psychological evaluations have concluded that Krywos isn’t a danger to himself or to others, authorities have said. He's collected disability much of his adult life and has taken on odd jobs for neighbors, according to Lucianna.
Krywos received probation and was fined $700 in 1996 after admitting that he switched off electricity to tens of thousands of utility customers during five break-ins at PSE&G substations in Paramus and Waldwick three years earlier.
Those affected included the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, the Paramus Park Mall and individual homes and businesses in Ho-Ho-Kus, Midland Park, Ridgewood, Saddle River and Waldwick. Traffic lights and police communications were affected, as well. No injuries were reported.
Police also charged Krywos with possession of an unexploded pipe bomb that they said was planted near the annual Lions Club carnival outside Waldwick High School.
Krywos was convicted of making threats in 2004 after being charged with arson, stalking and criminal attempt. Records show probation violations, as well.
This time, police charged him with seven counts of harassment and one of stalking, Capt. Greg McBain said. Krywos was arrested on Friday and booked into the Bergen County Jail, where he remained Monday pending court action on the new charges, records show.
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