83-year-old beats 99-year-old man in fight over parking

Steve Pulwers, 99 years old

An angry 83-year-old brawler beat a 99-year-old man old with a metal steering-wheel lock in Brooklyn in a fight over parking, authorities said yesterday. The geriatric dust-up happened at 2:10 p.m. Monday across the street from Maimonides Hospital in Borough Park, when Gersh Gofman, 83, of Sheepshead Bay, pulled his car in front of the driveway outside Steve Pulwers' house.

Pulwers, who's just two months shy of 100 and lives above a doctor's office, said he was putting out the trash and knocked on Gofman's window when the doctor returned for an emergency call and couldn't get into the driveway. "The doctor honked the horn, one, two, three, four times," Pulwers said. "I say, 'Gentleman, the doctor wants to go into the garage.' He did not answer. He then got out and takes a metal tool and hits me. He knocked me to the ground."

Pulwers, a retired Manischewitz wine-factory employee, said Gofman pinned him to the ground with his knees. The near-centenarian said he was helpless, and tried to use his coat to defend himself. "I hit him in the leg with my coat like a little fly," he said.

Gofman, who hadn't said a word up to that point, then threatened Pulwers in Russian. "He said he was going to send somebody to cut off my balls," Pulwers said.

The doctor called 911, and Gofman was arrested. Pulwers was taken to Maimonides where he was treated for a broken nose and broken ribs. "He's much younger than me, much stronger. He could be my son," Pulwers said of the comparatively spry Gofman. "Maybe he's crazy or maybe not normal, because a normal person doesn't try to fight an old man who is close to 100 years old.

"I'm lucky I'm still alive. I thought he was going to kill me." Gofman, who has no criminal record, was charged with assault, menacing and harassment, and released without bail. He's due back in court Feb. 25.