NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A sunny day of fun on the water turned cold when a woman returned to find her car ransacked. Now, she's asking for tighter security and surveillance cameras at boat ramps.
Recently, Amanda Johnson became the latest victim at a local boat ramp.
"We don't really want to be vandalized while we're here," she said.
She and her friends spent a couple of hours on Percy Priest Lake on Friday only to return to to find their vehicles broken into and purses stolen.
"I took to social media and got a message on Facebook from a lady who had found of our things floating," Johnson explained.
She and her friends say they did everything right. They locked their doors and hid their belongings, but she remembers seeing a suspicious vehicle nearby.
"We were directly in front of their car - they can hear what we were saying and saw what we had."
A security sign is posted at the entrance of the ramp parking area, saying report suspicious activity to police, but folks like Johnson say it's not enough. She referred back to the unsolved murder of a fisherman in 2015 who was shot at the nearby Mona Boat ramp.
"Anywhere that's inviting the public with parking spaces need to be monitored with surveillance cameras," she said.
Percy Priest Lake has 15 boat ramps. There are no security cameras specifically for the boat ramps and parking lots.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doesn't have plans to install some anytime soon. Still this victims says it's time.
Smyrna police report a small percentage of car break-ins in the area... the same goes for Davidson County. The Army Corps of Engineers has contracts with Rutherford County and Metro police for additional patrols on the weekends from May until September.
