Two women have come forward stating they’ve had enough of the illegal activity taking place across the road from where they live in Cobourg.
“We know what’s going on,” said one of the women who asked not to be identified.
“How we know, the amount of rolling traffic that is coming in and out of the driveway as well as the street.”
Both women live in apartments in the central part of Cobourg and it’s not uncommon to see emergency services attending removing people from the rooming house on stretchers more than once a week.
One woman said she’s been living in the apartment for nearly 20 years and “we’ve never had a neighbourhood in crisis like this past year.”
“For a vehicle to pull in the driveway and remain there with its brake lights on, running and for someone to come up and be gone within under a minute – in and out, in and out, over and over and over again.”
And both women say it’s not just something that happens during the night.
Crime has also increased in the area over the past year.
“It escalated through the summer with the thefts, disturbances, fighting in the streets and all the stuff that comes with that kind of activity.”
A number of weeks ago one of the women spotted someone ripping bags of recycling open.
What caught her attention is the person had school work in her hand of her child’s that she took from the recycling bag.
The person ran away when confronted, but the woman found a number of papers the person dropped from area homes including financial reports and a colonoscopy report.
It’s not the first time the person has been caught going through recycling.
Her children have even witnessed what they believe is drug activity happening during the daytime.
“I’ve watched with my own eyes – people line up.”
“We’ve told the cops – there is nothing they can do.”
Last summer at approximately 1 a.m. a person was yelling outside the apartment building that her daughter had overdosed inside the rooming house.
When a neighbour was alerted and came out of her home to say help was on the way, “you should have seen the people just fly out and soon as they heard the sirens.”
Both women said they’ve watched people come to her apartment building and illegal activity takes place where they’ve called the police.
‘One evening the smell of crack was so heavy in the hall, when you walked into the hall it was choking you.”
“The officer coming in, that was speaking to the apartment (unit) was covering his face.”
The officer told the woman he was “limited” on how far he could go in, but had a conversation with the people in the room.
“When the crack smoke is so heavy in the hall and he (officer) is telling you to put a towel in front of your door because we are saying we have kids.”
“They are always walking away and nothing ever gets done.”
“He’s covering his mouth, but we have to stay here with our children.”
The woman did put a towel in front of her door to keep the smell out of her unit.
“He said, keep calling us and we’ll keep coming back.”
Both women say they sympathize with police because even if police respond immediately, “a drug deal is done before they get here.”
“There is not enough police presence and even when they are there, it doesn’t last long enough for a deterrent.”
One woman told Today’s Northumberland, “I refuse to be scared, but this is real danger lurking outside the home where I’m raising my babies and I’m not ok with it.”
“And I’ve made that very clear with police.”
“I’m not pointing fingers, but something has to be done.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
