Parking lot needs more security for visitors’ vehicles
To the editor:
I am emailing you to inform you of a growing problem in your city. We love Colorado and visit three times per year. Our friends have never been to Manitou, so on Friday, Sept. 2, we decided to show them around.
We drove 12 hours from Oklahoma to visit. Parking is tough to find, so we used the Wichita metro pay-to-park public lot.
An attendant was helping people at the kiosk. We used the online services, paid $10, parked in the middle of the parking lot and went shopping and visiting the Arcade, mineral springs and Miramont Castle.
We stopped at the bar by the Arcade and, while there, our friends started receiving alerts on their phone that charges were being made on cards that were in her spare bag. I immediately ran from the bar to the parking lot and saw my passenger sliding-door window had been smashed out, my friend’s bag was gone and the van had been rummaged through.
I called the Manitou Springs Police Department and asked the attendant if she had seen anything. She said, “No, I’m only here to help people with the kiosk,” and then turned around and went back in her office.
I felt she was rude and unsympathetic to our situation. Officer Anthony Lara arrived quickly and was polite, and we answered his questions. He mentioned that this was the second break-in that day, third time that week.
Our friends had more than $1,000 charged on their cards at local stores. My window will cost $350 to replace but, with the holiday, no one was open to assist. So we drove home 12 hours with no window.
With this being a “paid/attended” lot we sure expected more security — cameras or something.
We don’t know when we will be back … we are so disappointed at the attendant’s response and lack of interest.
Didn’t she need to report the incident? She turned her back and walked into her little closed-off office.
If this is a consistent problem, maybe some parking money could be used for more signage saying “dangerous parking lot” or “beware.” I don’t know what else to say.
Tristan Diaz
Editor’s note: The Bulletin reached out to a parking ambassador and Leslie Lewis, Chamber of Commerce executive director. The parking ambassador said that the woman on duty at that time felt Mr. Diaz was rude to her.