A quiet Van Nuys neighborhood with neat lawns, palm trees, and single-family homes has been disrupted by a homeowner who attached a train horn to a tree and repeatedly set it off at random times.
The loud blasts over the past two months have led to complaints and calls to the police. Neighbors on Peach Avenue have also expressed concern for the homeowner’s well-being.
The latest incident happened Wednesday when Los Angeles police arrested Gary Boyadzhyan, 50, an unemployed car technician. He had set off the horn after promising to keep it silent. In an interview with The Times, he called the situation a “cry for help” and said he had been “wronged” by someone, without giving details.
“He’s a nice guy who is just going through something,” a neighbor said about Boyadzhyan, reflecting how most neighbors feel.
Boyadzhyan attached the horn, which is similar to one used on big trucks or trains, to a palm tree in his backyard. The horn hangs over his one-story home.
Since June, he has triggered the horn in long blasts in the late afternoon or at night, according to neighbors. Peach Avenue is usually a quiet residential street.
On Wednesday morning, Los Angeles Police Department officers visited him.
“I didn’t know where it was coming from all this time,” neighbor Clara Espinoza said as she walked by Boyadzhyan’s home. She watched as three officers went up to his door.
“Oh, it’s Gary’s house,” Espinoza said, surprised. She has lived in the neighborhood for 24 years and hadn’t been able to identify the source of the horn blasts. She planned to call the police after noticing that the horn had been going off more often in recent weeks.
“He’s a nice enough man and I say hello to him whenever I walk by,” she said. “You know this is in the Book of Revelations. The horns. Well, trumpets. But it’s like the same thing. It’s alarming.”
The officers knocked on Boyadzhyan’s door for several minutes.
“We just want to talk,” one officer said as a Times reporter watched from the sidewalk.
Boyadzhyan appeared in shorts and a T-shirt. After speaking with the officers for several minutes, Officer Chase Lambert said the visit was about a neighborly dispute. He and other officers did not provide more details.
“We are aware,” Lambert said, motioning to the property and the horn. “There are things that are being worked on to alleviate the horn issue.”
Boyadzhyan spoke briefly to a Times reporter about his encounter with the LAPD.
“I have an issue with LAPD Van Nuys,” he said, referring to the local bureau. “I also have a legal case that’s … over a person who wronged me and it cost me everything. It cost me my job. Everything.”
He did not explain more about why he set off the horn but added that it is a “cry for help.”
“If they were concerned, they could have come over to talk with me,” he said about his neighbors. “Instead, I have strangers knocking here, police, reporters.”
When asked if he planned to keep the horn off, he replied, “I didn’t have any plans to turn it on right now.”
A few hours later, neighbors said the horn went off again. LAPD officers arrived, handcuffed Boyadzhyan on his front lawn, and took him to a police vehicle. He was arrested on suspicion of interfering with a peace officer and disturbing the peace, both misdemeanors.
Boyadzhyan was booked into county jail shortly after 9 p.m. and released on his own recognizance around 5:30 a.m. Thursday, according to jail records. He did not respond to requests for comment.
ABC7 first reported on the train horn on Peach Avenue.
Espinoza said the horn was loud enough to shake her windows. Another neighbor, who asked not to be named, said Boyadzhyan would set off the horn 20 to 40 times at once. While the horn was annoying, neighbors are more concerned about Boyadzhyan’s safety.
Neighbors say Boyadzhyan often walks around his property late at night, sometimes using power tools or working on vehicles in his driveway.
Before his arrest, a spokesperson for City Councilmember Imelda Padilla‘s office said they had not received any complaints about the horn.
