South Florida mother battles with North Miami Beach officials to get fence installed after thieves have repeatedly targeted her home – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports
NORTH MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) – A South Florida mother is living in fear because criminals are targeting her home. She’s battling with the city for the one thing she hopes will finally keep her safe. Karen Hensel has tonight’s 7Investigates.
Surveillance cameras record as criminals hit this North Miami Beach home stealing packages.
Searching for keys under the doormat and trying to find a way inside.
Elisha Williams Mcgriff /home targeted by thieves: “I feel like I’m back in Iraq, to be honest with you.”
Elisha Williams Mcgriff served in the army for eight years, and now she’s fighting a new battle at home. Crooks have targeted her house eight times in the past three years.
Elisha Williams McGriff: “I just don’t feel safe.”
Elisha has spent thousands of dollars on security cameras, window tinting, and sensors to keep her family safe.
But all of that has not stopped the criminals from coming.
Elisha Williams McGriff: “They don’t care about the cameras. They don’t care about the sensors. They don’t care about it being in the morning time.”
Thieves also tried to steal her car so she put a boot on it.
Elisha Williams McGriff: “This is where the guy was kicking the fence.”
Footprints can be seen on her back fence after she says someone tried to kick it down.
And for Elisha that was the last straw.
Elisha Williams McGriff: “I reached out to the city and I was like, ‘Listen, you know, I need to get a fence in the front of my house.’ I sent them the documentation, the videos, and everything, and they were like, ‘You can’t get a fence.’”
North Miami Beach city officials won’t let Elisha put up a fence because it would need to be built outside of her property line.
Elisha Williams McGriff: “The city told me that my property line stops right here.”
The property line stops in the middle of Elisha’s driveway. The rest — belongs to the city. But she feels the city has a double standard.
Elisha Williams McGriff: “This tree. It fell on the sidewalk. I called the city and told them that the tree fell on the sidewalk. They told me that it’s my responsibility for me to get the tree maintenance.”
She paid hundreds of dollars to remove the tree, even though it was on city property.
Elisha Williams McGriff: “I maintain your property. I maintain the trees that fall, if it’s a storm, I’m responsible for even picking those up. And I can’t put up a fence to protect me and my child? It makes no sense.”
This is technically the property line [points at the ground]. North Miami Beach leaders are considering Elisha’s request to transfer this city land to her. But even if they do, they say building a four-foot fence along this sidewalk could obstruct drivers’ visibility.
Elisha Williams McGriff: “It feels like it’s nothing that I can do to protect myself and it’s no barrier that I can put up to separate myself from these people that are targeting me.”
Elisha says if she can’t keep the crooks away, she might be moving away.
Karen Henzel, 7News.
CONTACT 7 INVESTIGATES:
305-627-CLUE
954-921-CLUE
[email protected]
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
