JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Residents at multiple Jacksonville apartment complexes woke up Wednesday morning to find their cars vandalized.
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The incidents happened at Citygate Apartments, Gregory Cove Apartments, and The Park at Milazzo Apartment Homes.
Damon is just one of the many people in the Citygate Apartments who were left picking up broken glass.
“It’s frustrating because this is not the first time one of my vehicles in this apartment complex has been broken into,” Damon said.
One resident who didn’t want to be identified on camera out of fear of retaliation from complex managers, described the vandalizations as sad.
“I stayed on the northside near Lem Turner Dunn Avenue so, people who stay over there know it ain’t an upkeep place to stay,” the man said. “Moving to the southside everybody knows you going to the nice side of town...so this ain’t something I’m really expecting.”
Citygate wasn’t the only place where cars were vandalized overnight.
The Park at Milazzo Apartment Homes was hit and so were the Gregory Cove Apartments.
Milazzo’s managers said they had no comment and a manager at Gregory said about 20 cars were hit.
In early May, Antlers Apartment Homes dealt with the same issue.
An incident report from late May detailed more vandalized cars at a complex on Powers Avenue.
News4JAX Crime and Safety Analyst Tom Hackney said people commonly leave valuable items in their cars when they shouldn’t.
“There’s little that you can do to protect your car from being broken into,” Hackney said. “Park in a well-lit area. Park where there’s other cars. Try not to be too far away but even then, those things don’t prevent the thing from happening.”
Damon said one way of addressing this would be to add cameras to more places in the complex.
“It’s a frustrating matter and it’s something that needs to be addressed more rapidly,” Damon said.
News4JAX is waiting to hear back from a manager at Citygate.