A
20-year-old man has been charged after allegedly robbing a woman in North
Austin this past Saturday, August 1.
The story goes that the woman was in her apartment when she heard a knock on her door. Upon going to open it, she found no one there and retreated back inside her home. Roughly thirty minutes later, the locked front door was forced open and the suspect ordered the woman to give him all of her money. She had no cash on her, so the suspect took her iPhone, some jewelry and two laptops before fleeing out the door. The man was later identified as Miguel Bonilla-Cardona. Patrol officers at the complex saw Bonilla-Cardona walking out of another apartment in the same building after the incident, and were able to match him to the victim’s description. He was taken into custody after the victim positively identified him and police found some of the stolen possessions on him.
According to KVUE, “Bonilla-Cardona told police that he broke into the victim's apartment because he owed a drug debt to someone. He also admitted to committing three other burglaries in the same apartment complex that week.”
As a young woman living alone in Austin, stories like this terrify me. Thank God nothing more serious happened to the woman in that apartment last weekend, like so easily could have. I even had a minor incident at my apartment complex with one of the maintenance workers entering the premises without a work order while I was not home. When I went to the apartment managers to complain and demand that they change my locks, they told me that it would cost me $40 to have that done. I pointed out to them again that I live alone and that it is unacceptable for their hired staff to make me feel uncomfortable in my own home and that it certainly is not right to have ME pay THEM even $1 to change my locks because of an incident with one of their employees. When it was all said and done, I decided it made the most sense to swallow my pride and bite the bullet by begrudgingly shelling out $40 for my own safety and slight peace of mind, but I still think that that was absurd. I think that to a certain degree, the apartment complex should be accountable for their resident’s safety.
The part about this story from North Austin that concerns me the most is that he had admitted to breaking into THREE OTHER RESIDENCIES THAT SAME WEEK. I want to know what complex this happened at and what they did after the FIRST burglary to increase the safety of their tenants. I’m not saying that every complex needs to run out and install security cameras on the side of every building, but they should be held to a certain standard for the safety of their tenants. By being required to provide better outdoor lighting at night, reasonably reducing large shrubbery/hiding spots and ensuring that the residents only have doors and windows that actually lock, I think that we could make great strides.
The story goes that the woman was in her apartment when she heard a knock on her door. Upon going to open it, she found no one there and retreated back inside her home. Roughly thirty minutes later, the locked front door was forced open and the suspect ordered the woman to give him all of her money. She had no cash on her, so the suspect took her iPhone, some jewelry and two laptops before fleeing out the door. The man was later identified as Miguel Bonilla-Cardona. Patrol officers at the complex saw Bonilla-Cardona walking out of another apartment in the same building after the incident, and were able to match him to the victim’s description. He was taken into custody after the victim positively identified him and police found some of the stolen possessions on him.
According to KVUE, “Bonilla-Cardona told police that he broke into the victim's apartment because he owed a drug debt to someone. He also admitted to committing three other burglaries in the same apartment complex that week.”
As a young woman living alone in Austin, stories like this terrify me. Thank God nothing more serious happened to the woman in that apartment last weekend, like so easily could have. I even had a minor incident at my apartment complex with one of the maintenance workers entering the premises without a work order while I was not home. When I went to the apartment managers to complain and demand that they change my locks, they told me that it would cost me $40 to have that done. I pointed out to them again that I live alone and that it is unacceptable for their hired staff to make me feel uncomfortable in my own home and that it certainly is not right to have ME pay THEM even $1 to change my locks because of an incident with one of their employees. When it was all said and done, I decided it made the most sense to swallow my pride and bite the bullet by begrudgingly shelling out $40 for my own safety and slight peace of mind, but I still think that that was absurd. I think that to a certain degree, the apartment complex should be accountable for their resident’s safety.
The part about this story from North Austin that concerns me the most is that he had admitted to breaking into THREE OTHER RESIDENCIES THAT SAME WEEK. I want to know what complex this happened at and what they did after the FIRST burglary to increase the safety of their tenants. I’m not saying that every complex needs to run out and install security cameras on the side of every building, but they should be held to a certain standard for the safety of their tenants. By being required to provide better outdoor lighting at night, reasonably reducing large shrubbery/hiding spots and ensuring that the residents only have doors and windows that actually lock, I think that we could make great strides.
I
am coming here from California (I know, I’m sorry.) where the tenants tend to
hold more power because of the way that the California Civil Code is
constructed. When we had an incident with a stranger just strolling into my
neighbor’s house, the landlord immediately came and put in a higher fence for
the backyard at no cost to us. He ensured that our garage lock was functional.
He made sure that he never sent a maintenance man to our home without informing
us first.
My experience here in Texas has been exactly the opposite. The landlords have too much power and know that if we move out, they can up the rent and slap someone else in there tomorrow, easy peasy. They are unresponsive in general, and have dollar signs in their eyes. We have enormous, sprawling complexes with a few maintenance workers on staff and they get to things as they can, whether it’s a broken toilet or a tenant not feeling safe because of one of their employees. Nothing is urgent, everything will cost you more money. We need to take a long look at how Californians treat the landlord/tenant relationship and see where we went wrong.
My experience here in Texas has been exactly the opposite. The landlords have too much power and know that if we move out, they can up the rent and slap someone else in there tomorrow, easy peasy. They are unresponsive in general, and have dollar signs in their eyes. We have enormous, sprawling complexes with a few maintenance workers on staff and they get to things as they can, whether it’s a broken toilet or a tenant not feeling safe because of one of their employees. Nothing is urgent, everything will cost you more money. We need to take a long look at how Californians treat the landlord/tenant relationship and see where we went wrong.
In your post, Texas Civil Code Needs a Little TLC, I understand your frustration with feeling safe in temporary housing. I agree that landlords should be required by some sort of code that would protect their tenants. Safety should be paramount, particularly in this college town. And apartments are seemingly not motivated to please their tenants since, as you stated, they could have someone else in your unit in no time.
ReplyDeleteI wish there was more information in the news story about what the complex did or did not do after the first and second incident. Perhaps they were not even notified, although I find that hard to believe. Perhaps this man was just that good of a thief and the prior thefts hadn't been noticed.
Regardless, property owners should be required to ensure their tenants feel safe. There should be certain guidelines with regard to lighting, access, etc. Although they should not be expected to provide 100% safety, that would be impossible. Tenants must still be diligent and observant. There is no substitution for an effective community looking out for each other. Property owners could help connecting tenants with social events or even just introducing new tenants to existing ones. When everyone knows the people around, they are more likely to note suspicious behavior.
Crime is still a part of all of our lives, as it has been from the beginning of society. There will always be people that take what doesn't belong to them. But I agree that property owners need to do what they can to keep their property as safe as they can without penalizing their tenants.