S. Florida homes under repair since Wilma fall prey to burglars.

S. Florida homes under repair since Wilma fall prey to burglars.
By Jennifer Gollan South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Posted July 24 2006

First, Hurricane Wilma ripped off their roofs, then crooks plundered their refrigerators, kitchen faucets and anything else they could cart away.Thieves in May stole the Frigidaire stove from Richard Wachs' condominium at Sunrise Lakes Phase III, under repair since the Oct. 24 hurricane clobbered South Florida.


"Unfortunately the [construction] workers, when they leave the apartments, they don't lock the doors or shut the windows," Wachs, 85, said in a telephone interview from his temporary apartment in Plantation. "They made no effort to protect the items that were in there."Wachs is among a growing number of hurricane victims who evacuated their homes only to have their belongings pilfered. In the sprawling Sunrise Lakes complex, an ungated seniors-only community, 52 thefts were reported between January and May, up from 33 in those five months last year.Although police don't specifically track hurricane-related crime, several agencies report either an increase since Wilma or blame the storm for a growing proportion of thefts. Despite stepped up patrols in some areas, it is not clear who is responsible.With winds of more than 100 mph, Hurricane Wilma and the string of weaker storms that followed booted hundreds of Sunrise Lakes residents from their homes. Many of the displaced still languish in temporary apartments, paying both rent and condo maintenance fees as repairs stretch into the ninth month."Immediately after the hurricane, crime analyses showed there was an increase in crime in the area," said Sunrise police spokesman Lt. Robert Voss.Fort Lauderdale police say Wilma accounts for a growing proportion of thefts in their city, though the numbers are steady at about 400 for the first five months of both 2005 and 2006."We've had some unfortunate cases where opportunists will take advantage of a broken window that hadn't been repaired or a door that maybe was not as secure prior to Hurricane Wilma," Fort Lauderdale Detective Katherine Collins said.In Margate, the number of theft reports jumped 19 percent, to 100, for January through May this year, up from 81 in 2005, police Detective Chip Kolenda said. In Deerfield Beach, Oakland Park, Tamarac, Weston and other cities patrolled by the Broward Sheriff's Office, residential theft rose 3.2 percent, to 1,113, for the first five months of the year, up from 1,077 the previous year.In Tamarac, Myles Sockin returned to his Southgate Gardens condo in April to find his furniture in pieces and his JVC stereo and two 13-inch televisions stolen. Roofers are repairing seven Southgate buildings comprising 108 condominiums that were evacuated after Wilma."I opened my door, and my apartment looked like Hiroshima," said Sockin, 51, who has stayed with friends since his ceiling collapsed. "We've been victimized by the hurricane, and here we are being victimized by burglars again."Terence McElroy, a spokesman for the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said victims of theft might file claims with their insurance companies, report them to the police or sue the companies responsible for the homes' security.Timothy Woods, a vice president at Woods Restoration Services LLC, the Newington, Conn.-based company in charge of replacing water-damaged roofs and walls at Sunrise Lakes Phase III, said his construction supervisors sign an agreement making them personally responsible for locking apartments at the end of each day. No workers have been fired for leaving doors unlocked, he said. And none has been arrested on suspicion of theft."Could people be going there and finding a door open?'' Woods asked. "It's possible, but we are trying to limit access to only the people that need to be in there."Not so, said Richard Fleming, 64, who lost the kitchen faucet from his condemned Phase III apartment."They leave the doors open so workers can come and go," said Fleming, a metal finisher who, with his wife, Gloria, has lived in a rented apartment in Sunrise since November. "People come in and work on the building and see something they want and take it."Sunrise Lakes Phase III was hard hit by Wilma, with 31 of 93 buildings at least partly condemned.Given the comparatively greater extent of repairs needed at Phase III, Woods said, his company hired a private security firm to patrol the property with two undercover guards."It is a wide site, it is very expansive, which is making it a little difficult," Woods added. "But we think we are doing a pretty good job."Sunrise police responded to last November's increase in crime by intermittently assigning two to four extra officers to aid the lone officer who patrols Sunrise Lakes, Voss said. They also "conducted numerous sweeps out there to verify that the workers there belonged there," he said.Arrest figures for thefts were not immediately available, and Voss declined to comment on possible suspects because he said it would jeopardize ongoing investigations.