Frustrated senior citizens targeted in car break-ins 10 times in a row: 'I'm ready to raise hell'

ATLANTA - Residents of the Gateway Capitol View apartments are furious after several of their cars were broken into in their parking lot.

Residents say this is the tenth time the senior living complex has been targeted by thieves.

They say at least 12 cars were broken into there late Saturday night.

"I'm ready to raise hell," said Clarence Darden after he discovered that his car window had been smashed sometime Saturday night.

He and his neighbors at Gateway Capitol View senior living in southwest Atlanta spent Sunday afternoon taping up their car windows and cleaning broken glass out of their car seats.

"We should not have to be in fear of coming home and even coming out of our door and having to have a window fixed or tires repaired," said Watina Penoman, whose car was one of the ones hit.

She and many of her neighbors are on fixed incomes.

"It's extremely hard, because the windows cost anywhere from $100 to $600 to $1,000," she said. 

Penoman says the real problem is that this isn't the first, second or even third time this has happened to them here.

"Our windows have been broken here 10 times in six years," she said. 

In September 2022, we first reported on a similar mass car break-ins there.

Just like in 2022, residents are calling for the same thing now they were calling for back then.

"They need a gate up," Darden said. 

"There needs to be a gate here where anybody can't just come off the street," Penoman said. 

But they say their requests for a gate have fallen on deaf ears of the apartment’s management.  

We visited the building’s office, but it was closed Sunday.

We’ve also reached out to the owners and are waiting for a response.

Some here say management has had their chance, and they need the city to step in.

"The mayor needs to get involved. Atlanta Police Department needs to get more involved," Penoman said. 

APD officers did respond to the break-ins where they filed reports and gave affected residents a case number.

We also reached out to Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Atlanta District 12 City Councilmember Antonio Lewis and are waiting for their responses.