CHARLOTTE — Residents who live in the Camden Southline Apartments off South Boulevard want more safety measures at the complex after dozens of crimes in recent months.
Whitney Sansalone has called the complex home for two years.
“It’s actually been great up until recently,” she said.
She and other neighbors are fed up thanks to a rash of recent crimes.
“That would be a major understatement,” she said as she laughed, stunned by what she says has been a lack of action by the apartment complex.
She and other neighbors say multiple car break-ins, car thefts and stolen packages keep happening at their complex and Sansalone has fallen victim twice herself.
“They rummaged through everything, tried to look for something of value,” she said, explaining one incident. “We don’t really leave much in there.”
On Sept. 28, 2022, WSOC asked CMPD for all police reports at the complex since Aug. 1, 2022.
CMPD sent an email that said, in part, “The amount of data this search generated exceeds 100 reports.”
However, on Monday, Oct. 10, CMPD updated the number of cases at Camden Southline.
The department reported seven package thefts, eight larcenies from cars and one car theft since Aug. 1.
CMPD Capt. Bret Balamucki said multiple complexes in the neighborhood have also been targeted by thieves. Crimes at other complexes include car break-ins, bike thefts, car thefts, and package thefts.
He said residents bear some of the responsibility and should do what they can to help prevent such crime.
“Be aware of your surroundings, being smart, cars are targeted sometimes,” he said, noting that people shouldn’t be leaving personal belongings inside their cars and should lock their vehicles.
He also noted that many times, doors are left propped open or unlocked.
“We’ve had instances where people are walking their dogs so they’ll tape, they’ll defeat the lock mechanism so they can walk their dogs and not have to go through the key card or a different entrance,” Balamucki said.
He said residents in all complexes should make sure nobody is tailgating them as they drive into garages.
On Monday, an email went out to residents at the complex, describing how a resident’s catalytic converter was stolen on Friday. In the letter, staff said a car had gained access to the garage by tailgating another car through the gate.
Balamucki also said residents shouldn’t just let anyone in the doors behind them, especially if you don’t know for sure that they live in your complex.
But Sansalone said she and other neighbors are still frustrated by the crimes.
“I think everything has kind of come to a head lately. Everybody is starting to get riled up about this,” Sansalone said.
She’s not alone in her concerns. She showed us an online resident portal with posts from dozens of her neighbors.
“We shouldn’t be paying top-tier rent and having to worry about our vehicles being broken into,” she said as she read one of many posts in the portal.
Sansalone believes criminals are getting in the car garage through unsecured doors. She showed us the damage to one door, where she believed someone used a tool to break it open.
And on Wednesday, when she showed a Channel 9 crew around, we were able to walk through a door without a fob. The latch of the door was taped back, not allowing the door to lock.
“We need to be proactive about making sure people aren’t in this building rather than just saying, protect your valuables and, you know, look around and call 911 if you see something suspicious,” she said.
Residents want more security measures taken, including a security officer, hoping to prevent the crime before it even happens.
CMPD Officer Brad Hall, who has been in communication with the complex’s staff, said additional security at the complex may help turn things around if the complex can afford it.
“We do see that some of the complexes that have a concierge or a 24-hour front desk person - that their security is probably a bit better,” Hall said.
“I don’t understand how, with a complex this size, it’s not feasible to have a security guard here,” Sansalone said. “To me, that’s just common sense. It’s common sense to a lot of people.”
In a letter to residents, the complex said CMPD officers would heighten patrols at the complex both in marked and unmarked cars.
Camden told Channel 9 on Monday that the complex has been working to better security measures over the weekend.
“As stated in our statement last week, we had already moved to address security by installing more cameras, and allowing packages to be dropped off to a secure area within the community rather than left on doorsteps. We’ve also been checking lighting and installed an additional lock in the bike storage area. We’re stepping up our maintenance inspections of all access points to make sure they are not tampered with or accidentally left open. This weekend, we further restricted access to the garage, installing a lock shield on the access door to prevent it being pried open and we’re restricting access elsewhere too,” a complex spokesperson said.
Last week, Camden Apartments told us the following:
The overall resident experience in all our communities is very important to us. We take all incidents reported to us seriously, and we are constantly reviewing our own security protocols. We have also met with local law enforcement and other businesses in the South End community to fight crime throughout the neighborhood and have communicated with residents when incidents occur.
In response to specific incidents we have been made aware of at our community in recent months these are just some of the steps we’ve taken so far:
- We’ve installed additional security cameras in areas where we can do so under NC law.
- Met directly with CMPD to provide camera footage of car break-ins in an effort to find and prosecute the culprits.
- Worked with Amazon and other carriers to temporarily relocate all package delivery to the community’s secure ‘elounge’, which has security cameras and requires Smart Lock access.
- Ensured that all lighting in the community is functioning properly.
- Provided additional coded cable lock access to the bike storage area.
- Reviewing access points and ensuring that doors can be locked and we’ve also asked our residents to let us know immediately if access points are open or if they see any sign of forced entry.
- In addition, we’ve requested law enforcement conduct more patrols around our community.
(WATCH BELOW: Report: Fraud and theft are growing on Zelle)
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