Last week, I was chatting online with Sandy when Kurt left to go to work... and there were two cop cars sitting out front of our building. We asked the female detective what was going on, but all she said was that everything was under control. Well, I understand that everything is under control, but what the hell happened so that I can be worried if I have to be?? She didn't want to tell us anything. A little while later, Rose came home from her friend's house and found out what was going on from the receptionist in the leasing office -- the apartment right behind hers (which is downstairs from our apartment) had been broken into, and the maintenance man had caught the culprits in the act. Rose was freaked out because she had left her living room window open...
Now Rose and her husband John are worried for the safety of their daughter Royall, and John really wants to buy a house to get out of this apartment complex. This is not the first break-in in this building alone -- it's the third. Two on the first floor, and one on the third floor. It's scary.
We asked the receptionist in the leasing office what was being done about all the break-ins. She told us that all of them had been caught, as if to say that since those culprits were caught, we weren't going to have any more problems. I told her that only two of the three were caught, to which she responded that she didn't know there were three, she'd only been told about two. But the leasing people refuse to do more for us... and I'm afraid it's going to be that way until one of the tenants gets hurt.
A couple of days ago, I saw more cops in the complex -- in the building right across the parking lot from us. Again I got scared... but this time it wasn't anything criminal. A woman thought someone was in her house, but it was really just a cat caught in a closet.
Last night, as Kurt and I finally took leave of Rose and John, Rose walked us outside and we noticed some kids at the building across the street from us that were playing with fire. They had some sort of pole which they had lit on fire, and then they sprayed lighter fluid on the ground and lit that to get a big fire going. Kurt walked up to them to get them to quit, but they just took off on their bikes. Knowing kids, I knew they were going to just change their location and keep playing with fire. Kurt went out to patrol the area in the truck while Rose went to call the cops. And sure enough, Kurt came back with the report that the kids were now on the playground, which is made of wood, and they were still playing with fire. The cops came, chased them down, and gave them a talking-to. That was it.
I am of the firm belief that kids like this need a taste of the punishment that could befall them if they keep up their destructive behavior. They destroyed property -- there's huge fire marks on the sidewalk and the grass from these kids. The cops should have packed the kids in the back seat of the police car and taken them home to their parents -- because the parents are probably oblivious to the trouble their kids are causing. As it stands, these pre-teens just got a warning... and they're trouble-makers enough to go right back to doing it again tonight or maybe tomorrow night. Kids aren't scared of the cops anymore. So a stern talking-to by a police officer isn't enough to scare them straight anymore. At least not in this town.
Things used to be so much simpler...