Security and Service Concerns at Strathmore Court
I have been really frustrated with my apartment management lately for a variety of reasons. However, the latest incident has pissed me off enough to write about it. I live in Strathmore Court at White Flint, North Bethesda, MD, a Bozzuto-managed apartment building. It’s been four years since I have been living here, faithfully paying my rent and complying with rent increases every year. However, I often do not feel that the apartment management is holding their end of the bargain. I have complained about our swimming pool opening a month late, missing or broken equipment in our gym, and repairs needed in the courtyard. And in the past few months, we have seen an increasing number of homeless people coming into our gated building.
On Sunday, April 28, 2024, I returned from camping. While unloading the gear in the garage, I left three fishing rods leaning against the wall. Unfortunately, while moving the gear to my apartment unit, I forgot to take them home. The rods were left overnight, and the next day, they were gone. I checked all the usual places for lost and found and posted a message on our building bulletin board. When no one responded for the next two days, I informed the leasing office and asked them to send an email to all the residents asking them to return the rods if they had taken them by mistake, thinking that they were left as a free giveaway or being discarded. Again, nobody responded. So, I asked the office if they could review the CCTV footage to see what happened to the rods, as they were kept right in front of the cameras in the garage. The leasing office refused to do so, stating that it was a privacy and legal issue and that they could only do it if I got a warrant from the police. They also stated that it was my mistake to leave them overnight outside, which, in their definition, implied that they were up for grabs.
I accept that it was my mistake to leave them overnight in the garage, but I did that in a gated building, which I paid for. It’s not that I left them in a public place. And I did give the benefit of the doubt that someone took them by mistake, thinking that they were free giveaways. Therefore, I sent multiple messages and emails to all the residents and waited for anyone to respond. However, since no one has responded so far, it either means that someone took them intentionally and has no desire to return (stealing) or an outsider came to our gated building and took them away. In both cases, it is a shitty situation and raises a question about the security of our belongings in our building. By not reviewing the CCTV footage for me, the apartment management is protecting the people who might be in the habit of stealing stuff in general, which is a threat to all the other residents.
I am not from the United States, and I do not know how to file a police complaint to get a warrant. I also do not know if it will cost me any money to access the CCTV footage. So, I am letting it go. However, it has set a horrible precedent for me and other residents (who came to know about the incident) about the quality of life in Strathmore Court at White Flint. I informed Bazzuto directly through Twitter, and they said that someone would reach out to me to look into this further, but it’s been a couple of days, and no one from the higher management has contacted me yet.
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