Gates Don’t Always Keep Crime Out

Gates don’t keep one neighborhood free from crime, and some neighbors say they don’t even seem to help.

“All of a sudden, our neighbor appeared at the back door, pounding very hard. We opened it up and he was almost incoherent, saying he had tried to be robbed by three people with guns,” Jack Anderson said.

When this happens to you at 3:00 p.m., you realize daylight doesn’t stop crime from happening. Apparently, neither do gates.

“The gates give you the idea of security, but once you get past the gates, there’s really nothing to stop you once you’re inside,” Bermuda Dunes Country Club resident Skylar Brown said.

The victim of the attempted robbery in the Bermuda Dunes Country Club suffered only minor injuries. The suspects left empty-handed.

A metal gate to the entrance of your neighborhood doesn’t always mean safety, because gates stay open for a given period after the first car passes through.

“Probably long enough for someone to get in behind me. I have seen two cars go through at once,” Brown said.

Neighbors said break- ins are a growing problem.

“I’ve heard of some burglaries going on. I’ve heard of people getting robbed at gunpoint in their garages alot more than you’d think,” Brown added.

Some neighbors attributed this to the numerous vacant homes in the neighborhood. Others said gates don’t filter as well as they should.

“We have a lot of dogs. Usually, that’s a good deterrent for anyone trying to break in. After we got our house broken into, we got a new alarm system put in,” Brown said.

It’s another layer of security if the first layer fails.