Residents running scared in St Peter's Court

Criminals are plaguing residents of the St Peter's Court apartment complex on Tom Redcam Avenue, metres from the Jamaica Defence Force base at Up Park Camp in St Andrew, and the people are growing fearful as the hoodlums defeat a string of new security measures put in by management.

In less than three months, the tyres of at least five vehicles have been slashed by vandals who waited until the residents were asleep to carry out their cowardly acts.

"This happened first in April when somebody came in and punctured four of my neighbour's tyres and two of mine. That incident passed," said a female resident who was afraid to give her name.

"Now, they came back and punctured everybody's tyres. This time, all four of my tyres were punctured. It is frightening. I don't feel safe here. This is definitely getting out of hand," added the woman as she pointed to her vehicle with all four tyres flat last Thursday.

In addition to missing work for the day, the incident cost the woman more than $6,000 to repair the tyres stabbed on their outer sides by what residents speculated was an ice-pick.

"When you puncture underneath it's not so bad, but when you puncture the sides of the tyres, they can blow out on you at any time," continued the woman, worriedly, as the car tyres parts were taken away for repairs by Winston Hutchinson, the manager at St Peter's Court.

"Right now, we are just trying to assist the tenants with getting their tyres repaired. Somebody came and did this previously and we got a security guard. He left here about 5:00 this morning. We heard that it was after that this thing took place," said Hutchings.

LIGHTS AND GRILLES ERECTED

In recent months, the management has also erected lights and grilles to keep out unscrupulous persons, but those measures are not holding up to the criminals, who continue their tyranny.

Thursday, one resident, using a knife, opened the lock to one of the grilles within seconds to demonstrate to our news team how easily the property could be breached.

They said the area also teems with the homeless and people of unsound mind, who threaten residents whenever they are confronted about loitering on the premises.

"We have been linking with the security companies to put in an electronic gate because we are trying to make it as safe for the tenants as possible," said Hutchinson.

"It is very scary because if someone can walk around with an ice-pick stabbing people's tires, they can easily use that same ice-pick to stab somebody coming in late at night," said another fearful female resident.

Last Friday, a police sergeant at the Cross Roads Police Station said while the latest incident had not yet been reported, the cops have frequent reports of vandalism and robberies in that community.