Issue date: 9/12/07 Section: NEWS

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Around 70 different vehicles in four separate Denton apartment complexes had their windows smashed and some contents stolen last Thursday morning, said Jim Bryan, public information officer for the Denton Police Department.
Police were first alerted around 3 a.m. Thursday. Bryan said authorities received no calls reporting any suspicious activity that evening.
"One of the things surprising me is that there was no call of suspicious persons or vehicles that night," he said. "If they started before 3 a.m. it's just surprising that nobody heard or saw anything."
Each of the burglaries took place at complexes located along I-35. The Ridge, The Coventry, Oak Meadows and Campus Park apartments all found glass lining their parking lots in the morning, Bryan said.
"Some vehicles had stereos missing, some computers, some CDs, change, money, just really whatever they could find," he said. "But then there were also several cases where the car had been rummaged through and nothing was taken, so that's a bit unusual."
The Coventry is the only complex out of the four to have a gate that limits access from the streets. Though even with the gate, the apartment complex isn't completely safe, said Lana Ellis, manager for the apartment complex.
"Some people think because it's a gated community that it's 100 percent safe, but that's just not always the case," she said. "This is why we call them limited access gates, they aren't security gates."
Authorities do not have an estimated amount for total loss and damages, but Bryan said the cost could easily soar above $21,000 in broken windows alone.
Currently, police have no suspects in the case, though they did attempt to capture fingerprints, Bryan said.
"We did attempt to take prints off of glass and things that we were able to, but I'm not sure any if any of those were useable or if we could match them up to anything at this point," he said.
The Coventry and Oak Meadows complexes are both making steps to add additional lighting to their parking lots in an effort to deter future burglaries, said managers from the two complexes. Representatives from The Ridge and Campus Park declined to comment.
"We want to make the residents more aware of their surroundings," said Linda Day, manager of Oak Meadows. "We've been talking about adding additional lighting now, but then again, we've had cars broken into in broad daylight before."
Police are currently assuming that the instances are related, Bryan said. Authorities are taking measures to inform other apartment complexes about the burglaries, Bryan said.
"The main thing you can do is if you see anything unusual, call us and we'll go out and talk to them," he said. "If it's just a resident, they won't mind talking to us, but if it's a bad guy you may just be saving yourself or your neighbors some time and money."

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