Rat Island was sold for $160,000 to a Bronx man Monday who spent more than a decade looking at the island from his backyard.
“It’s right off my property. It’s so close I can go swimming back and forth,” said retired Port Authority worker Alex Schibli, 71, who has lived on City Island for 12 years, the New York Post reports.
“I can see it from my window. My wife and I kayak around it all the time,” the lifelong sailor told The Post. “I feel like it has always belonged to me. It’s so lovely out here. You wouldn’t even believe you were in New York. And there are no rats at all!"
Schibli beat out seven other bidders -- including a fisherman, a nonprofit and a family hoping to name it after a relative -- to purchase the island for $160,000, the New York Post reports.
“Once I knew it was up for sale, I just had to have it,” he said, as reported by the New York Post.
Schibli has already been acting as the island's care-taker for years.
“I noticed people were having parties and get-togethers out there. They would leave beer bottles and other garbage. I took it upon myself to clean up after them. I care about the island so much,” he said, as reported by the New York Post.
