During the past year, I’ve heard from dozens of people with heartbreaking stories about how crime has adversely affected them. Policy makers often dismiss “property crimes” as simple financial inconveniences. I’m going to run some stories to illustrate the actual impact and fallout of these crimes. This is the first.
Melyza, a young single Mom whose close friends call her Mely, moved to Renton thirteen months ago. She was determined to find a great location to raise her daughter who has some special needs. Renton was appealing to Melyza for it’s services, relative affordability, and quality of life.
She found an apartment she liked at Regency Woods, in Renton. A hard worker, Melyza picked up two jobs to cover her rent, car expenses, and the many other costs of supporting her small family. Between her two jobs, she was even able to save a little money each month to put away for emergencies and for her future.
Her primary job was delivering meals for UberEats using her own car, work she did every day but Sunday. Her UberEats job was important to her because it allows her to have fast access to help her daughter when necessary. Her UberEats flexible schedule also allowed Melyza to accept shifts working in a local gas station, providing coverage whenever other employees call in sick or need time off, about two or three days a week. Within days of moving to Renton Melyza began making new friends. Renton residents buying gas or ordering delivery benefitted from the friendly service she provided.
Her busy, responsible, organized life was in balance until New Year’s morning when she discovered someone had tried to steal her car and destroyed her steering column in the process. She contacted the police, and then announced the distressing news on facebook.
“Happy new year to me! The Kia challenge has hit me hard! My car got broken into and attempted to steal. Whoever did it, dropped off an already stolen Kia in the parking lot and attempted to steal mine. Broken window and the steering column broken.” Dozens of sympathetic comments flowed into her facebook stream, many from people with similar stories.
Six weeks after the attempted break-in, Melyza’s car remains undriveable. Without her UberEats income, she’s had to deplete her savings to make her February rent payment.
“I thankfully had a little bit saved, and I was able to make rent this past 1st. But, I’m not sure what is going to happen next month when it is due. It’s not just bills that need to be covered, it’s day to day living and they took that from me” Melyza said.
Her insurance agent had not helped her situation, apparently not sufficiently promoting comprehensive insurance when Melyza got her policy. “My insurance did not cover any costs, I guess I just didn’t select it when I got the insurance. The vehicle is not running still, it’s been weeks. I have it sitting in my parking lot spot in my apartments. I do have to pay out of pocket for all the repairs which include, new battery (they stole it), broken back window, cracked windshield, air filter(also stolen), and the ignition. I have not been able to repair it yet as I don’t have the funds to do so. I’m a single mom and it’s hard. Right now, I am walking to and from work, they were nice enough to give me some more hours so I am able to just barely pay my bills but it also takes me away from my child and makes it that much more difficult to be there for her.”
Melyza is bright and resourceful, and I’m hopeful that she will find her way through the upheaval she has experienced in her life. If ever there was a case for rent or other assistance programs to kick in, this would be it, and I hope some of our agencies can help her. She has to walk or take public transit to get to any appointments, so her life is really complicated right now. A person could easily find themselves homeless from her situation, adding to the growing number in our area.
Statistically, two other Renton residents had the same experience as Melyza on the same night, as car thefts are happening about three times per day in Renton. While every neighborhood has been impacted, the victims getting hit the hardest tend to be young families living in apartments, where garages are scarce and residents often don’t have the savings or resources to incur major expenses. Sadly, these are often our new residents, that represent the future of our city. Everyone whose life unravels when they should be thriving represents a failure on the part of our policy makers who have taken an oath to protect them. My heart breaks a little every time I hear one of their stories.
(Note that even if police showed up while the perpetrator was breaking into Melyza’s car, the perpetrator could have simply jumped in a car and driven away, and the police would be forbidden to chase them. Even more surprising, if the perpetrator had succeeded in starting Melyza’s car, the police would still be unable to pursue them. With police under such tight restrictions, there is no reason to hope the situation will improve soon. Learn more here. )
A friend set up a GoFundMe to assist Melyza get her car fixed and cover unexpected expenses. Please help if you can. Here is the link.
Mely is good people and doing right by her family. She’s really independent and didn’t deserve to have the rug pulled out from under her. The fact that some of our political leaders think that insurance will take care of it and that they side of the criminal rather than the victim is just crazy .
I spent decades helping build a city that would attract wonderful people like Mely; it breaks my heart when young people arrive, get fully immersed in our community, and then get their lives turned upside down because our police have had their hands tied and prosecutors are failing to do their jobs.
I know how much you care about Renton and the people here and sorry your work is getting trashed. How do we make sure another Carmen Rivera doesn’t sneak in? I had no idea she was a police defender until after the election.
defunder.
She told everybody that her dad was a police officer and that he was a good cop. So I figured she liked the police.
No child should pay the price for what their parent did, but Carmen keeps claiming that her dad was a good cop. And she did accept significant campaign contributions from him.
With her anti police policies, she really should know what a good cop vs a bad cop looks like. She really should stop saying he was a good cop if she wants to be taken seriously and not considered as someone who will lie (or just covers up) to get their way.
Probably getting way off the mark, but Carmen should see that her policies have consequences like the victim here.
Three cars a day in Renton. That sucks.