Local

Roswell residents burglarized after apartment fire

ROSWELL, Ga. — Several Roswell residents burned out of their apartments are victims again after police said someone burglarized their abandoned units.

Police said they are investigating at least nine burglaries at the Marquis Trace Apartments on Raintree Way.  Last week, a fire ripped through a row of townhomes, leaving several dozen people temporarily homeless.

“I think they’re horrible, just evil,” victim Sheryll Ingram said of the burglars.  “I worked all my life for everything I (have).  Nobody handed me (anything), and you walk in my house like it’s a department store.  That’s what they’re doing to me.”

Ingram said someone pried a plywood board off a window, kicked it in, then stole several televisions and a computer from her apartment.  Ingram said someone burglarized her apartment prior to the fire, too.

“We got hit pretty hard both times,” she said.

Neighbor Sharon Bobbitt said someone broke into her unit twice since the fire.

“I’m just disappointed and upset,” she said.  “My place is ravaged.”

Petchenik noticed the complex boarded up some ground-floor windows and put up a fence around the building, but victims said they wished it had provided security for the damage units.

“My unit is boarded up but someone is getting in there,” said Bobbitt.  “I don’t know how, but someone is able to go in there and get my things.”

Apartment management kicked Petchenik and his photographer off the property before he could ask about the security situation.  The property manager referred Petchenik to the company’s corporate office with Star Residential.  As of Wednesday afternoon, nobody had returned Petchenik’s call for comment.

Police said they were still working the cases but had made no arrests.