On the night of Saturday the 30th of July, a rash of vehicles were broken into ransacked and vandalized on the roads of Blair Ave, Dublin Street and Princes Street, Pukekohe.

Five of those vehicles belonged to residents of the Parkway Pensioner Flats on Princes Street.

Parkway has 32 elderly pensioner flats with vehicles parked in various spots around the complex. There are only three light poles to cover an area of approximately 70m x 50m and with at least five cars trampled/ broken into, it seems  that the perpetrator(s) had spent an extended time walking around under the cover of darkness.

Security has been a problem by what some of the residents have told me. Kids jumping the fence at the locked walkway gate to take a shortcut from Dublin Street to Princes Street. Reports of vehicles being broken into, in the past.

The Franklin Council that are responsible for the complex, had installed security doors on the flats about three weeks ago, but as the pictures show, have not installed locks on these doors essentially making them useless against home invaders.

My concern is that if a resident had confronted the perpetrator(s) while in the act of thievery or even if the perpetrator(s) decided to invade one or more of the flats, the pensioners would be defenceless and we may even be looking at the more serious crime of assault or worse.

What do you think? Share and comment on this post.

Update: 06/09/16 Another set of cars broken into. One car has been broken into twice and now has two broken windows.