A group of idle kids making trouble over the summer vacation normally wouldn't make it on the news. But tonight we'll introduce you to one frustrated vendor who says she has just about had it with an unruly gang of young boys in the Lake Independence Area who have been pilfering from her store and harassing her. Today she told Keith Swift her story.
Wendy Montes, Fruit Vendor
"I am not begging anyone, I am not asking anyone for anything. I am working and I am trying and I need help man."
34 year old Wendy Montes says she needs help to control a gang of young boys, between the ages of 11 and 15, who have been robbing, frustrating, and harassing her. Montes makes her money at this fruit stand located near the complex building on Mahogany Street.
Wendy Montes,
"I have some kids around this area who like to come here and interfere with my fruits. They thief my fruit and if I tell them anything they 'cuss me and 'cuss me. Before they used to come and thief my fruits and run. I can't even move from around here (my fruit shop) because they will take it and run."
2 years of harassment became burglary last night when Montes says the gang of pre-teen boys broke into her home and stole $200.
Wendy Montes,
"They told me more than one time that they will shoot me or they will kill me and he would break up my house and steal everything I have in there. So last night they did that because when I came home around 8'oclock I saw one of them came out through the back but I didn't suspect anything until I opened the door and went inside and I went to the back and saw the window broken. When I came out again and I told my kids to call them, they cursed me and they ran."
Keith Swift,
What did they take?
Wendy Montes,
"They took the money. It looked like the same when I came, it was the same time they were running so they couldn't take any more but they took nearly $200 from what I sold yesterday. So I don't know what I can do with those kids because I am getting tired."
Montes says she is frustrated since the police refuse to arrest the boys and the parents seem unable to control them. Esther Seawell is the mother of two of the boys accused. She told us she did hear the complaint but that is just about all she knows.
Esther Seawell, Mother of Accused
"I noh know nothing. It is what she had come and told me one day."
This mother of a 13 and a 14 year old says she doesn't want a handout, she isn't asking for financial help. All Wendy Montes wants is to be able to sell her fruits in peace.
Wendy Montes,
"I am being harassed and I don't think it is fair because I am trying to work. I am working very hard to take care of two kids I have by myself. I have to work for them. I am not begging anyone so why are they behaving like that. I don't understand, I want somebody to please try to help me because I am getting harassed from young and old people. We are out here trying to make a living."
We did speak to some of the other accused youths. All admitted that they harassed Wendy Montes but that was in the past. None claimed responsibility for last night's burglary.
