JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The News4JAX I-TEAM is investigating more complaints about car groups that are damaging large parking lots around the Jacksonville area.
The latest complaint comes from Beach Boulevard, just east of where the road splits with Atlantic Boulevard. The strip mall parking lot is older and mostly abandoned. Tire tracks can be seen all over the lot.
Sara Siron said the sound in her apartment complex across the street from Beach Boulevard is enough to keep her up late at night.
“I think it’s dangerous. Absolutely, insanely dangerous. And disturbing. It goes on until 2 o’clock in the morning,” Siron said.
For months, the I-TEAM has document car groups meeting in parking lots around the city -- typically at the mostly vacant shopping center at Beach Boulevard and Schumacher Avenue.
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In addition to lots on Beach Boulevard, News4JAX has received reports of similar scenes in the Argyle Forest area and another near the Regency Square Mall.
Siron said she’s seen them not just doing doughnuts in her part of town, and she’s seen when police arrive.
“They were busting it up. Before that, yeah, they were having a hell of a time,” Siron said. “They don’t only do doughnuts, they drag race up and down.
One of the first reports the I-TEAM received was late last year when video circulated of a car doing doughnuts near police headquarters in Downtown Jacksonville.
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Crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson has warned property owners not to engage these car clubs, but to call police or higher off-duty officers to monitor parking lots.