CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Alleged sprees of car break-ins are sparking frustrations with residents at a local apartment complex.
Daniel Pridgen, who lives at the Beverley Apartments on North Community House Road in Ballantyne, said he has witnessed three such sprees in the six months he has lived there, with the crooks hitting multiple cars in one strike.
He said his and his wife's car have been among the targets.
"During certain times, they're coming in at two, three o'clock in the morning," Pridgen said. "They might sit in the parking lot, wait for things to kind of die down, get slow, do what they got to do, and then leave."
Pridgen said the complex has been promising security upgrades like cameras and patrols but has yet to deliver, prompting him to take his own actions.
"I've been setting alarms," Pridgen said. "I'll set an alarm at, like, 2 a.m., just to step up on the balcony and just make sure things are all right."
"It's super aggravating," he added.
In its first quarterly report, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said it has seen a 99% increase in car thefts compared to 2022.
Over the last three months, the agency's crime mapping database shows about two dozen thefts involving vehicles within a one-mile radius of the complex. A query of crimes in the neighborhood back to mid-December did not show any reports on the actual Beverley property. However, the platform providing CMPD's crime mapping database said the cases shown are "a representation of crime" and are not "all-inclusive."
WCNC Charlotte reached out to the apartment complex management team for comment. As of publication, we haven't received a response.
Contact Vanessa Ruffes at vruffes@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.