By Wilko Martinez - Cachero, Daily Mail
Residents at two swanky North Carolina communities have sounded the alarm over alleged trespassers taking over their pools, claiming that their homeowners associations (HOA) are not doing enough to stop the rowdiness.
The complaints have emerged at Edge of Auburn in Garner and Trace at Olde Towne in nearby Raleigh, with residents saying they have become afraid to use their amenities funded through hefty HOA dues.
Dramatic footage from one of the pool areas showed a spat between residents and nonresidents, WRAL reported.
It was not clear how or why the confrontation started, but homeowners described how it embodied the tension inside the placid communities.
Ben Myer, who lives at the Edge of Auburn, said his ‘beautiful community’ was now seeing parties of ‘between 20 and 50 teens’ on what seemed like a weekly basis without an apparent solution in sight.
‘We’re paying for a pool, we’re paying for a basketball court, beautiful development, walking trails and people are scared out of using it,’ Myer told the outlet.
A separate video shot by a Ring doorbell camera showed a group of about 20 people showing up to an unauthorized gathering.
The crowd walked calmly in the middle of the street and chatted among themselves before allegedly partying.
The alleged trespassing has caused police to be called to both communities repeatedly throughout the last year and a half.
In one call, law enforcement reported that ‘it’s going to be 20 people that jumped the fence to get into the pool area,’ according to audio captured by the outlet.
Another call from police said that ‘there are multiple juveniles that are trying to get into the closed clubhouse for a party.’
At Edge of Auburn, Garner police responded to six fights between January 1 of last year and June 15 of this year, according to WRAL.
Myer claimed officers were sometimes unable to take action against the alleged trespassers.
‘They’ll stand there while all the nonsense is going on, and they cannot do anything because the trespassing documentation wasn’t signed,’ Myer told the outlet.
As Edge of Auburn is private property, law enforcement is limited in their response without a formal agreement or a present HOA representative.
Garner police also responded to 35 security checks, 31 suspicious activity calls and 16 disturbances during that period.
Trace at Olde Towne, less than five miles away, has also seen residents persistently call law enforcement.
Raleigh police responded to 28 trespassing calls in the neighborhood, according to the outlet.
Officers also responded to 30 disturbances, 17 suspicious activity calls and 17 suspicious person reports.
A resident, Deborah Clifton, explained how she claimed the trespassers were getting in.
‘What happens is you have a kid or someone who will knock on the door, and they’ll bang on the door real hard, and whoever is in here will open the door and prop it,’ Clifton told WRAL.
She added: ‘Kids should not be able to just come in here without any adult supervision.’
A separate resident, Dev Mashruwala, described how deeply the situation was concerning him.
‘It’s not a good feeling when you are actually scared for your life in the place that you call home,’ Mashruwala told the outlet.
‘The place that I spent so much money and so much effort to try and make a dream for myself,’ he added.
Residents have called for taller fences, increased security cameras and more review of how the entry fobs into the communities are being used.
Lennar, the builder of Edge of Auburn, said it had hired private security to patrol the amenities and was working with Garner police to cite trespassers.
‘The community has a significant shared investment in its amenities and the Board is committed to keeping them safe and accessible to residents,’ Aaron Curtiss, a Lennar spokesperson, told the outlet.
But resident Juan Carlos Guadarrama insisted that the HOA had still not done enough.
‘The HOA is almost non–existent,’ Guadarrama said. ‘They exist whenever they collect the dues, but beyond that, I don’t believe that they’ve taken the appropriate steps.’
Meanwhile, the Trace at Olde Towne HOA executive vice president Jennifer Burch declined to share specifics.
‘The HOA maintains several channels of internal communications with its members and will continue to do so,’ Burch told the outlet.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Lennar, Burch, Garner police and Raleigh police for comment.
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