Katie Johnson Posted the following Tuesday on FB’s Marsh Creek Neighbors:
“
Security Alert. At 2:09am, my security cameras alerted me that there was motion detected in my driveway. I have two videos showing a man trying to get into the cars in my driveway. He was unsuccessful because our cars were locked. The police were called and they spent quite a bit of time looking through neighbors yard with flashlights searching for him. They did not find him, but they did find a skateboard in the middle of the road on the corner of Fiddlers Point Drive and Heron’s Nest Lane. This is just a reminder to make sure your cars and homes are locked up.”
On Wednesday 12-20, Shay Fontana, Katie’s neighbor, sent this text message:
“Hey….we have Christmas time thefts in Marsh Creek, too! 2 nights ago someone stole the whole set-up of our snowflake mini light show! We are still in shock! It was not expensive. Just very surprising!”
Steve Herrington, Chair of the Community Safety Committee, issued the following statement on 12-20:
At about 2:30 AM on 12/19 the Ramco roving patrol reported to our Security Supervisor Tony Copeland the presence of “7 patrol cars inside the community”. They were searching for an unknown number of juveniles seen pulling on car doors. They were spotted on a home video camera on Fiddlers Point Drive. Thankfully residents had their car doors locked and called the police, who conducted a search and only turned up an expensive electric skateboard left in the roadway.
Based on the location of the incident we believe the group made entry through the woods behind the gated retention pond in front of the Mizell entrance to the Commodore Club. Edging along a small service road, they reached the entry gates at The Villas. At no time did they approach the Mizell gate or were observed by the gate staff or our gate cameras.
This is an excellent reminder that we should always lock our doors, car and house, overnight. Most of us keep a garage door opener in our vehicles, so if someone got in your car, they could open the garage door and possibly have access to your home. Keep the doors locked and remember to lock the door from the garage in to the house as well.
Once St. Augustine Beach concludes whatever repairs they may make at the Villa’s entrance culvert, we plan to add some additional lighting and fencing to that area to make it more secure.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Scott Herrington, Community Safety Committee
We have no idea how these perpetrators actually gained access to our community. It’s all supposition.
We do know it happened and we need further discussion how we can enhance security for our community and our residents. It’s not ok that we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on providing security and yet we have incidents like the above described. We need a better plan.
The gates are a false sense of security. We have convicted felons in the neighborhood every day. Service companies have hired people with a criminal past. Fact! We now have huge crews of people in here installing fiber cable. I know of convicted felons (burglary) that play golf here. Trust me, they aren’t running background checks on members or guests. They really don’t care how you got your initiation fee money to join or who your guests are.
Not to mention, this is real life, we have residents who have children that are addicted to drugs. We have drunk drivers leaving the clubhouse. The gates and a security car driving around doesn’t change any of these issues. Throwing more money at it won’t fix it. It’s real life. Lock your doors.