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Victims Speak Out After Nearly 70 Vehicles Are Burglarized At Pompano Beach Complex

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POMPANO BEACH (CBSMiami) – It was a sobering and stunning site for dozens of residents early Wednesday as they woke up to find that nearly 70 of their cars and trucks had been burglarized during the night.

Victims told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that were truly discouraged and one of them said both of her SUVs had been broken into in the parking lot outside the Waterford Point Condos at 801 South Federal Highway in Pompano Beach.

An image from Chopper4 showed row after row of damaged vehicles and at least a half dozen crews on site repairing them.

"They broke the windshield of one car in the middle of the night," said Marsha Keller.

She gave D'Oench iPhone video showing extensive damage to both her Nissan Titan and Isuzu Rodeo.

That video showed broken windows on both sides of the SUVs and broken glass on the ground of the complex. The criminals also stole items from her vehicles after rummaging through them.

"They stole my wallet with my driver's license, my credit cards and $700," she said.

"I feel unsafe," she said. "Now I'm afraid to get home and because of the broken windows I will have to be a witness and now I am in fear for my life."

Another victim, Brian Johnson, said, "I came outside and saw police outside. I came out to my car and my window was broken. So he's fixing it and so the car next to me is broken too. I heard 68 cars were broken into. I was lucky. They didn't take anything but this was very inconvenient. This was a huge inconvenience for everyone affected by this."

Johnson added, "I can't believe someone was running around the parking lot in the middle of the night doing that. I think somebody was desperate. I'm not sure what I could do about something like this other than sleeping in the car."

A third victim, who wished to be identified only as Sylvia, said she did not want to show all of her face during the interview but she showed CBS the damage to her Lexus.

"They broke the window on my left side," she said. "They smashed everything and opened up the back. I don't know what these people wanted. Maybe they wanted money for drugs because there are a lot of drug addicts around.

"This is the first time we have seen a random act like this. This was a terrible incident. This is bad. You never expect this. Now you have to spend extra money to take care of this. People in some cases are retired. They don't have much income. These people come and destroy their lives. It's a hassle for elderly people. They should be more considerate, the robbers."

Sylvia said she had car insurance, but because of her deductible she would not be able to recover all of her losses.

CBS4 tried to find out about security at the complex, but a man identifying himself as the President of the Condominium Association ordered all news crews to leave the property.

BSO says it does not know how many criminals were involved. BSO said there was no surveillance tape at the complex.

Anyone with information that can help should call Broward Crime Stoppers at (954) 493-TIPS (8477).

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