Pickers pay visit to Jericho Road; episode airs on Monday

By CHRIS BROCK
TIMES STAFF WRITER

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2013

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The Jericho Road home of David A. and Frances A. Pietroski will be featured Monday night on the History Channel program “American Pickers.”

A History Channel press release described the Pietroski property as a “honeyhole” that is possibly haunted.

“American Pickers” features Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz as they travel the country searching for relics that they sell for a profit.

“I’ve been collecting since I was 12 years old,” Mr. Pietroski, 56, said Friday.

He said that years ago, his parents, Stanley and Frances A. Pietroski, operated an antiques shop.

He has several buildings on his town of Watertown property, including a two-story farmhouse and “a couple of barns” filled with items that “American Pickers” were interested in.

“I go to rummage sales,” Mr. Pietroski said. “When I was a kid, we used to go to auctions. I don’t do that anymore.”

In 2005, he purchased a fake severed head of John the Baptist at an auction at Watertown’s crumbling Masonic Temple. In his living room he has the barber’s chair that came out of Watertown’s Hotel Woodruff, which was demolished in 1976.

Mr. Pietroski gave the pickers a warning before he opened his main barn.

“I told them when I unlocked the doors that I tell people, ‘Before you go in, your life won’t be the same when you come out after seeing all the stuff.’”

He said Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Fritz were amazed at his collection.

“They probably seen that stuff evry day, but they said, ‘Oh, my God!’” he said.

Mr. Pietroski said the pickers purchased about 15 items from him, but will only show a few on the show. He said that because of an agreement with the show’s producers, he can’t say what was purchased before Monday’s episode airs.

“By the way, the barber’s chair is still sitting in my living room,” he said.

“American Pickers” airs at 9 p.m. Mondays on the History Channel.