TOLEDO, Ohio — Residents in the Trilby Park area have been dealing with a recent wave of crime and got the chance to share their concerns in a "quality of life" meeting with the Toledo Police Department on Thursday.
"It just makes it kind of nerve-wracking through the neighborhood, because they are on their bikes, they're on the streets, they know where most of us live," said Sue Ilstrup, a resident of the area.
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Ilstrup has lived in the Trilby Park area in west Toledo for 35 years and was one of dozens who attended the meeting. She's been concerned about her safety, especially after an incident last year in June, involving kids on bikes.
"They followed my van on their bicycles to find out where I live and then the next time I saw them up here at the park, they came up to me and said 'now we know where you live'," Ilstrup said.
At the meeting Thursday night, Toledo police told WTOL 11 that in the last 30 days, there have been 149 calls to police about crime in sector five, which encompasses the Trilby neighborhood.
While the police did not know how many of those incidents involved youth, residents say it's a common theme.
"We just see juveniles that kind of hang around in the park and they act like they have nothing to do and when they look for something to do, it's usually trouble," Ilstrup said.
Ilstrup is not alone, though. Fellow resident Deedee Zawodny says back in April, a group of kids tried to break into her house while she was there.
"We were eating dinner and we heard a loud bang on our window and door and they proceeded to open up our screen door and then to open up our front entrance door and my husband and son jumped up and held it shut," Zawodny said.
It's cases like this that frustrate Mike Roby, a community leader of the Franklin Park, Pine Glen Park and Whitmer-Trilby Neighbors Association, which aims to curb crime in those areas and keep streets safe.
"The parents aren't able to track what their kids are doing here at the park, because they let them go and they are outside and the kids are doing whatever they want," Roby said.
Roby says people he's talked to are scared to call for help, intimidated by what could happen if they do. So, he hopes meetings like this give people the confidence to pick up the phone.
"I'm hoping, with what they're (Toledo police) doing in this area, it will show the neighbors that they care and reinforce and engage the neighbors to call 911 when they see something happening, because it's gotten to the point in this area that they don't even call anymore," Roby said.
The next quality of life meeting in Trilby Park is scheduled for Oct. 17.