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Stonegate area incidents as of Nov. 1, 2001 Assault Burglary Burglary
of Vehicle Criminal
Mischief Robbery Theft |
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Stonegate
Villas apartment tenants stress over safety By Ram Luthra Tenants of the Stonegate Villas Apartment Complex and surrounding areas have become increasingly worried about their security, especially since the area has been a target for crime during the past five months, Fort Worth police officer C.A. Gonzalez said. The concerns are a result of the latest incident when Jason Cordova, a senior advertising/public relations major, was reportedly kidnapped and robbed at gunpoint at midnight April 16.
The apartment complex, owned by the Metric Property Management, issued notices to all its tenants on Thursday, as a crime awareness alert. “This appears to be an isolated incident, but we suggest residents take a proactive role in fighting crime,” the notice reported. Gonzalez said TCU students are the major problems in the Stonegate area. “You have a place where many TCU students live,” he said. “The vast majority of the problems lie with these TCU students. They throw numerous amounts of parties, where drinking is heavily involved, causing disturbances for other people.” Gonzalez said since many students are the reason for many disturbance calls, it makes it difficult to differentiate between disturbance calls and emergencycalls. Darcy Little, community manager of the Stonegate Villas, said TCU students account for 70 percent of all residents at the apartment complex.Jack Wilson recently moved from the Stonegate Villas to a house in its residential community. He said he was surprised when he heard the news of the incident last week. “When
you think of Stonegate, you think of a place that is safe and security
is not a major issue,” Wilson said. “This actually shocked
me that something like this would happen in a place, where you have
a gated community. I now think that security is hyped into an awareness
stage, where people must be cautious of things that go on around
them.” “They are stretched out as it is, and they are doing everything they can,” Wilson said. “They have to more or less respond to such activities, rather than have the ability to be proactive and thwart the incidents from occurring. “I think neighbors should keep their eyes open for each other and create one-on-one relationships with other people in the community when problems occur, rather than just point fingers.” Little said she doesn’t know exactly how many incidents have occurred at the apartment complex because the Fort Worth Police Department is responsible for that information. But according to incident reports provided by the Fort Worth Police Department, 32 criminal incidents have occurred at or near the apartment complex within the past five months. Paul Kanitra, a senior political science and radio-TV-film major who lives at the Stonegate Villas, said he wishes his rent was used to increase the security of the apartment complex. “I pay all this money in rent to Stonegate, and I hope they can use at least some of it to provide half-way decent security,” Kanitra said. “It is a spooky deal, because people will do anything and everything when they see the opportunity arise.” Kanitra said he was disappointed and felt betrayed with the justification from Stonegate’s management. “At first I was concerned, but now after they have lied to their tenants about the number of incidents it is even worse,” he said. TCU Police Chief Steve McGee said he was not surprised with the amount of criminal incidents reported. “This is probably the case with most apartment complexes,” McGee said. “You have a circumstance with a lot of people with nice cars and a lot of potential items that may be stolen in such a small area. It is a prime location for burglaries and robberies to occur.” Ram
Luthra
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