Shopping and Safety concerns at Christmas

I want to warn everyone about the following occurrences of this past Friday night, 12-2-11, at the Marple Crossroads Shopping Center where there's a new Walmart.
 
I volunteer on Friday evenings at the Animal Coalition of Delaware County's Cat Adoption Center located in PetSmart at the Marple Crossroads Shopping Center. Because the front parking lot conditions have been so crazy since the opening of the new Walmart, last night I parked in the back parking lot right outside of the new walkway door near the back of PetSmart. The walkway is well-lighted, as is the parking lot. After I completed my evening shift at the Cat Adoption Center, I exited through the walkway to discover several police cars on the scene. Some vandals had shattered the windows of approximately half a dozen cars and stolen their contents -- my car included.
 
In fact, the vandals were busy breaking into cars located in the same lot while the police were just feet away taking reports on previously vandalized cars. One vandalized car was actually parked adjacent to the building next to the walkway door with two visible wall-mounted cameras. Unfortunately, one of the cameras is out of order and the other is pointed to the roof of the building. Hence, as of midnight Friday night, no one had been apprehended. In addition, one of the police officers mentioned to me that they had been remarking amongst themselves that the new walkway is going to result in muggings.
 
For me, personally, what makes matters worse is that the vandals stole some of my college schoolwork as well as my daughter's entire schoolbag -- which contained all of her college textbooks (one of which is a rental and we have to return it . . .) and all of her class notes for the semester. This right before finals time. I am just sick for my daughter. A single parent, I have no idea how I will be able to replace the smashed car window or the stolen college textbooks. Even if I had all of the money in the world, however, I can not replace my daughter's meticulous, detailed notes from her classes.

Especially at this time of the year, when people are holiday shopping, I thought readers should be made aware of the dangers of the new walkway and the back parking lot at the Marple Crossroads Shopping Center.

Lock everything in your trunk, park as close to the front of stores as possible, under a very bright light.

Everyone take care and have a safe and happy holiday season.