OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Neighbors in a Northwest Oklahoma City neighborhood said they’re fed up with people living in abandoned homes next to their own that don’t belong to them.
Jennifer Lowry told NewsNation affiliate KFOR on Monday that it’s an issue her neighborhood has been dealing with for three weeks now.
Her problems concern two homes she said have both been abandoned for a little over a year.
“I just thought they were looking for things to take and maybe sell,” Lowry said. “But then, when suitcases started appearing and more activity, that’s when I really got concerned.”
Lowry said she’s called the City Action line at least once a week on either property to ask city employees to come out and secure them. She said both homes have unsecure access points that have made it easy for people to come and go as they please.
“I would just like all of the windows and doors to be boarded,” Lowry said. “There’s an upstairs window that, if they had a ladder, they could crawl up in the house again.”
Lowry said efforts to have police come out have resulted in no arrests being made, until Monday. She said typically anyone staying in the property is gone before police can show up, but that wasn’t the case when KFOR reporters stopped by.
“Today was the first day that we were able to catch someone in the house,” Lowry said.
She said she was relieved officers had stopped by when they did, but that the relief would likely be short-lived.
“The police just told me this morning, you know, they can take them away, but there’s nothing keeping them from coming back,” Lowry said.
KFOR reached out to multiple sources Monday to get Lowry some help, including City Action, which directed a call to a supervisor. That supervisor took down information for both addresses and said someone would be sent out to check things out.
KFOR also reached out to Ward 1 City Councilman Bradley Carter, whose ward Lowry lives in. KFOR asked him if he could help, and if he’d be willing to come to the address to see the concerns for himself.
A spokesperson said KFOR’s request was forwarded on to Carter, but no response was received.
A search of property records found that the property where Monday’s arrests were made belonged to Great Plains Funding LLC, based out of Topeka, Kansas.
KFOR reached out and spoke with Stan Oyler, who said the property had undergone foreclosure and was in the process of being sold to someone who planned to flip the home. Oyler said that, as far as he knew, issues with the property’s security had been resolved.
A man who showed up at the same property Monday claimed to be the owner but declined an interview. He said that the property had been secure as recently as Friday, and that efforts would be made Monday to make sure it was secure again.
“Maybe his idea of secure and mine are two different things, but, you know, the door’s always wide open and that’s obviously how they’re getting in,” Lowry said.
KFOR also found property records for the other home directly next to Lowry’s.
Online records said the property was owned by a Chad Carrattini. KFOR found a number for Carrattini online as well and reached out.
Carrattini said that property was under contract with someone else and that he would try and figure out what they were doing with it. A text message received after KFOR informed Carrattini of the arrests in the area said that contractors were on the way Monday to board up the property.
A city employee stopped by before KFOR left to drop off a notice on that door of a hearing date set for April 23.
“I shouldn’t have to live this way,” Lowry said. “Our other neighbors shouldn’t have to live this way. We just want a safer community.”
KFOR also reached out to spokespeople for Oklahoma City Police for comment on the arrests, but as of Monday afternoon no further information was available.