Thieves vandalized and looted dozens of vehicles at a downtown apartment parking garage over the weekend.
An estimated 40 cars were broken into late Friday night or early Saturday morning at The Continental at 1810 Commerce Street, CBS News Texas reported.
Police officers responded to a burglary of a motor vehicle call around 2 a.m. Saturday, according to Jesse Carr, senior public information officer with the Dallas Police Department.
“No arrests have been made, and an investigation is ongoing,” Carr told The Dallas Express.
“I walked through the garage, and [on] each of the four levels, there were more than 10 cars that were vandalized,” Arthur Brundidge, a resident of the complex, said, per CBS.
The apartment building has a security guard in the lobby, but residents told CBS there was no security guard in the parking garage. Residents pay an additional $100 per month to park in the unsecured garage.
According to residents, The Continental has had a crime problem for quite some time. One tenant, who asked not to be named, claimed their vehicle had been broken into four times in the last 13 months, per CBS.
A Yelp reviewer who apparently lived at the complex, S.J., commented in October 2021 that his car was broken into in the “unsecured underground parking area.” He noted that the security gates “never work” and claimed management told him they were not responsible.
Katty S. commented in 2019, expressing her unhappiness with the complex.
“So recently, there have [sic] been a string of stolen packages, break-ins, and car vandalism, and [the] majority of it is happening in our building.”
“No one feels safe,” Brundidge told CBS on Saturday.
The Dallas Express contacted The Continental on April 10, but management declined to comment.
In October, at least 12 vehicles were broken into at the Rosemont at Lakewest Apartments, as previously covered by The Dallas Express. Two male suspects broke into the cars at the complex located on North Hampton Road. Residents told NBC 5 DFW that security is generally lax at the complex.
Theft from a motor vehicle is the third most common crime in Dallas. So far this year, 3,003 incidents have been reported in the city, right behind 4,384 reports of motor vehicle theft and 4,009 reports of simple assault, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard.
The Continental is located in City Council District 2, represented by Jesse Moreno. His district has logged the most crimes overall this year, with 3,069. District 2 has logged 447 thefts from a motor vehicle this year, second only to District 14, which has logged 515. The two districts encompass the downtown areas of Dallas.
Crime in Downtown Dallas is consistently higher than in neighboring Fort Worth, according to monthly reports by the Metroplex Civic & Business Association. Cowtown’s downtown area is patrolled by a dedicated police unit and private security guards.
The Dallas Police Department has been hampered by a chronic shortage of police officers, fielding only about 3,000, although a City analysis recommended 4,000 officers to adequately protect the community. In addition, this year’s budget for the police department is only $654 million, considerably less than the budgets of other high-crime jurisdictions, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.
