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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Residents at a Midtown senior living center say it’s not a question of if, but when their cars will be broken into. For many of them, Sunday night was the night.

At the Union Avenue Baptist Towers in Midtown, some of these residents who are 80 years old and older say they want to stand guard all night and find out who keeps doing this.

“I just hold my breath every day I come out here, this is the first time it happened,” one of the residents said.

They’re not just tired of the damage, but they’re tired of feeling unsafe in their homes.

“I came out around 8 o’clock to go to the grocery store, I had a big list of things to buy. And when I got out here, my car had been broken into,” a resident said.

  • (Photo by: WREG’s Ashley Paul)
  • (Photo by: WREG’s Ashley Paul)

Her car, along with at least 10 others was the latest to fall victim to the rising number of car break-ins in Memphis.

“You come out and your window is broken and you’ve got to cough up money to get it fixed, and half the time they don’t even get anything. We don’t leave anything of value in the car,” a resident said.

This is the same area where several people on South Cox Street in Midtown also reported their windows being smashed. Memphis Police says that these incidents are connected.

Residents say they’re sick of it because this is not the first time it’s happened.

“I don’t like parking over here, this is where they mainly hit, over here,” one resident said. “And it’s been several times they’ve broken into these cars. Some of them have been broken into three or four times.”

Both ladies say they’ve spoken with the management at Union Avenue Baptist about these concerns and were told safety precautions would be put into place.

But it’s now been months, they say, and nothing has been done so they’re considering moving somewhere else.

“I really thought about it this morning, not going to lie. I really thought about it this morning,” the resident said.

WREG has reached out to Union Avenue Baptist Towers, but they declined to comment.

“It’s scary, and now our cars are out here where anybody can break into them,” the resident said.

MPD says this is still an ongoing investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact CrimeStoppers at 528-CASH.

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