Newark bans barbed wire. Guess what happens.
“The business owners complied and as a result this crime wave started against the church and these other businesses,” DeSantis said. “These people would scale the fence, steal tires off the cars and dashboards with the airbags in them.”
DeSantis estimates the business, J&L Auto Service has lost almost $20,000 already in stolen property.
The Rev. C.H. Thomas, a minister at the Church of Christ, which is across the street from J&L Auto Service, said the crime is getting worse.
Thomas said 10 members of its church has had its cars broken into since it removed its wire during the summer. In one case, the thieves broke into a car of a member who had just gone shopping.
In another incident, he said a young woman encountered a thief who had broken into her parents’ car in the parking lot.
“This tends to be escalating,” said Thomas. “We have to do something before these people think they own the neighborhood.”
Next door to the church, Etchel Paragas, the owner of a private ambulance service, said thieves scaled the wire-free fences and stole two GPS devices from the ambulances.