Dec. 20, Saturday. Have you ever felt to angry and violated that you can’t help but rant and rave or just cry your eyes out with frustration? That was me Saturday night. Arrggg..sniff…arrggg…sniff..arrggg!
Returning from a fun day trip with a group from our park, I noticed immediately that our bikes were missing from where we had them locked up. It was hard to accept the fact that they were actually stolen right from under our RV! Doug’s lock was cut and still hanging from the hitch. My bike and BOTH locks were gone. I had even recently bought the thickest braided cable bike lock Home Depot sold. I got that sick feeling in my stomach you get when you know something just happened but you find it so hard to accept that there is nothing you can do about it. Yes, I filed a police report that very afternoon. But don’t hold much hope of the thieves being caught. The police have more serious problems to take care of. Proper security should be the responsibility of the park. Maybe I should cover my self in black clothes, blacken my face, grab my camera and some Mace, play detective, and roam the park at night! Maybe not. If I confronted a thief I might strangle him! You don’t mess with a ticked-off old lady!!!
The Grinch struck and made us members of the “stolen bike club”. I say club because over 20 bikes have been stolen from our park since we arrived here in mid November. Apparently taking precautions to lock up bikes wasn’t enough. The ring of thieves did the same thing last season in December. Guess they couldn’t hock my old rusted out bike I had last year. So this year they stole my bend new Schwinn turquoise ladies bike with front basket, night lights, and mileage meter. I loved the color and Doug took the time to “trick out” my bike. No, we won’t buy new ones here only to possibly have those stolen as well.
Other suspicious activity has been going on in the park as well. There is a very dirty smelly thin man with long beard, dirty baggy clothes, and long stringy grey hair seen in the park facilities by other people. We saw him one night out walking and he came right out of the dark in front of us and walked by saying not a word. He is not the type of person at all that would be renting in this park. Last week I saw a teenage boy walking away from the brick wall fence across from us. There is nobody camped on the row across from us, so I am convinced he pulled himself over the wall and began walking through the park as if he owned it. Others have seen boys deliberately throw a ball over the wall and take turns going over the wall into the park to get it. The wall is simply not tall enough to keep people out even though the front of the park is gated. While out walking at night we have noticed that there are not enough lights or security cameras throughout the park. The interior of the park looks like a nice upscale resort, but it is not in the best part of town. We believe the park was here first and the less than desirable neighborhoods grew up around it. With all that being said, we no longer feel secure and safe in this park.
So with heavy hearts, we have decided we will not return to this park again. We thought we had indeed found a park where we would enjoy spending many winter seasons. It is not only the loss of the bikes, but having to give up being with friends we have made around us, out hiking, in the photography group, and other activities that saddens us. We made wonderful new friends last season that are either already here this year or will be here soon. Our friends are such wonderful great people close to our age that we enjoy being in their company, sharing adventures, and doing things together. It saddens us to have to tell them that we won’t be back at this park and won’t be seeing them anymore unless we are fortunate enough to meet them on the road somewhere in our travels as all of us keep up with where everyone is. We will still look forward to making new friends wherever we travel.
So shame on you Grinch and we will still have a Merry Xmas in spite of you….. Our friendships mean more to us than anything material.
That' so sad, but I'd find another place too.
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