3 Vehicles Stolen in Lakewood Ranch by an armed gang (Tampa: low crime, felon)

[TimDaCodet]

Originally Posted by CecilyCorbin

Some people around here seem to attempt to minimize or paper-over the gradual but increasing severity of crime all over Manatee, Sarasota and Lee Counties. Worse yet others seem to think or believe that the Lakewood Ranch development is some kind of isolated city, town or other sort of political subdivision. It's simply another neighborhood/development mostly within Manatee, and now Sarasota counties, thus prone and certainly ripe for all kinds of crime and danger. That area is not some kind of walled-off, independently patrolled/protected or special area. Criminals, young and old are quite mobile throughout the entire area.



Want to get an accurate understanding of the existence/location/level of crime in and around the Lakewood Ranch development? make a phone call to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office and read about the the dispatched calls on their newly updated website. It's enlightening if you're really interested about the truth of criminal activity. Using the level of crime found in say, Los Angeles as a barometer when assessing acceptable levels of community crime for Manatee and Sarasota Counties seems wrong-headed, but it seems that newly-arrived transplants enjoy doing it all the time. For them, (not natives), everything, including crime, food, traffic, amenities, housing, congestion, schools,healthcare, etc is relative. In fact, I've discovered that most of these new arrivals look at everything in Manatee, Sarasota and Lee counties through a narrow prism of relativism, and their resulting "vision" must be Gospel.

LWR ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. This is only going to get worse as it’s still under massive development and expansion.

[CecilyCorbin]

Originally Posted by TimDaCodet

LWR ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. This is only going to get worse as it’s still under massive development and expansion.

Yes, you're correct, but for whatever insane or biased cheerleading for that particular area it ignores the reality of crime increases, and common sense. There has, and continues some kind of agenda of lying or diminishing any mere discussion of a continuum of, or depth of crime in these areas. That's very very odd.


These thugs were also trying to break into one or more of these houses. That was their intention as I was told by the commander.


Pssst...it's like "please don't discuss real crime in Lakewood Ranch". The sheriffs' departments know better
and they will state that clearly to any resident. Some new residents are in denial, some don't want to deal with the truth and facts, still others only believe their own narrow truths, for whatever convoluted reason. Oh well. All I know, the area in toto has changed negatively with all kinds of crime in the past 20 or more years. That's certainly not a welcomed change.

[CecilyCorbin]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Are Realtors required to disclose this to potential buyers if they ask about the safety or crime in the Lakewood Ranch area, or is it buyer beware?

How do the Lakewood Ranch zip codes rank for crime vs. Palmer Ranch?

I lived in Palmer Ranch for 1.5 yrs and never heard of anything like this, but we had a manned guard gate w/ partrol.

Do these 2 communities have guard gates, and are they manned? Are there camera's? Did the perps enter in a vehicle? Or, did they walk in and steal the vehicles while inside the gates?

I'd like to learn more about the details of these purported crimes.

Realtors are only required to reveal those issues delineated under Florida Statutes, and sometimes they do a poor job of that in this State.


Gated neighborhoods often offer up a real false sense of community security. I personally know of serious crimes/events that have experienced all kinds of offenses committed by RESIDENTS and outsiders, and even guests.


One such gated private community (that I know very very well, lol) has had for example only:


"Random Shooting", 2 separate incidents

"Fraud" invg , 3 separate incidents unrelated

"Suspicious Circumstances" Trespassing, 4+ incidents unrelated

"Stolen Vehicle"
"Baker Act" violence
"Larceny"
"Domestic Related" violence
"Hold-up"
"Vandalism" , 2 separate incidents
"Mental Person" - Violent I could go on and on about others



And this particular subdivision which I know, lol, has an average house worth >500. My experience has been that even neighbors lie to others about crimes committed in their OWN subdivision. The official record doesn't lie! Seek out the true record for accuracy.

[Trying941]

Originally Posted by CecilyCorbin

Seek out the true record for accuracy.

I agree, we should find out the true record.

It is remarkable how much BS one finds on the Internet - particularly with people who are trying to scare people away from moving here.

So, please look at the crime map and compare East of I75 to West of I75.

https://www.crimemapping.com/map/fl/manateecounty

Zip Code 34202

By my calculation, it is at least 20 times safer.

I should add, for those not from Sarasota Bradenton, LWR is mostly in Bradenton and entirely East of I75.

And, by the way, I am not in favor of more people moving here. We have more than enough and it is getting more crowded every year. But the truth is the truth.

[beach43ofus]

Glad I got out of Lakewood Ranch in the 1980's. Back then, the worst crime was some senior citizen walking out of Linger Lodge without paying their lunch tab....because they forgot to.

A neighbor of mine got a $50 fine for burning some brush they cleared during a no-burn drought month.

Sometimes golfers would steal citrus fruit off people's trees that backed up upto golf courses...oh my...call the police!

[CecilyCorbin]

Originally Posted by Trying941

I agree, we should find out the true record.

It is remarkable how much BS one finds on the Internet - particularly with people who are trying to scare people away from moving here.

So, please look at the crime map and compare East of I75 to West of I75.

https://www.crimemapping.com/map/fl/manateecounty

Zip Code 34202

By my calculation, it is at least 20 times safer.

I should add, for those not from Sarasota Bradenton, LWR is mostly in Bradenton and entirely East of I75.

And, by the way, I am not in favor of more people moving here. We have more than enough and it is getting more crowded every year. But the truth is the truth.

For the true record, none of Lakewood Ranch is in Bradenton.


The truth is the truth.


Safety is relative. Crime is someone else's problem until it comes to you and your house.



It IS amazing how much BS one finds on the Internet, especially coming out of the mouths of a few well-intentioned but understandably ignorant transplants

[Sunshine Rules]

Realtors are only required to reveal those issues delineated under Florida Statutes, and sometimes they do a poor job of that in this State.


I would like to comment regarding Realtors and what they can disclose about crime statistics. Even though crime statistics are considered public information, FEDERAL LAW via the Fair Housing Act prohibits Realtors from talking about the crime rates and statistics with customers. Information about crime rates or the opinions on the safety of a neighborhood can be interpreted as references to race or ethnicity according to the federal government, both of which are protected under the Fair Housing Act.

Instead of providing you with direct information on a community’s crime rates, a real estate agent should refer you to go to the proper resources to find out these statistics for yourself. By the way, it is suggested we do not give names of specific crime tracking websites to customers for those statistics.

Fair Housing has testers who's job consists of contacting real estate agents and asking those loaded questions to see how the agent responds. An agent found guilty of violating Fair Housing laws can be fined, be sued and potentially have their license suspended for a period of time or revoked. Serious stuff.

FL does, by the way, have state statutes that mirror the federal ones regarding fair housing.



FL statutes regarding disclosures for the sale of real estate pertain mainly to the sellers of the property. Sellers are obligated to disclose all known facts that materially affect the value of residential real property and are not readily observable to the buyer.

Real estate agents are also required by FL statutes to disclose any known facts materially affecting the value of a residential real estate property that they become aware of to the parties. Agents cannot keep quiet regarding known defects that a seller may instruct the agent to not disclose.

There are lots of other state and some federal disclosures required in a residential real estate transaction that agents are obligated to tell buyers and sellers about as applicable to that particular property so that the required disclosures may be included into a sales contract. Disclosures such as Lead Based Paint for older homes, FL Condo disclosures, radon gas, mandatory HOA requirements, FL property tax disclosure summary, if the property's located within a designated flood zone, etc. Which explains why the contracts can run 20 pages or more.

[CecilyCorbin]

Here in this area, I have known many many licensed agents then who have violated Federal and State laws, a few of them commit some of the violations on a continuum.


For my own experience around here, I've been told *stuff* that was patently an illegal disclosure.
Ha ha

[Trying941]

Originally Posted by CecilyCorbin

For the true record, none of Lakewood Ranch is in Bradenton.


The truth is the truth.


Safety is relative. Crime is someone else's problem until it comes to you and your house.



It IS amazing how much BS one finds on the Internet, especially coming out of the mouths of a few well-intentioned but understandably ignorant transplants

First, let's deal with the insult. I was born in Florida to parents who lived in Florida. You were not. You are the transplant.

Now, let us talk about where Lakewood Ranch is located. Yes, technically LWR is mostly in Manatee County and not in Bradenton. (And is moving into some of Sarasota County.) But, the Sarasota metropolitan area as a metropolitan area is defined by the Office of Management and Budget as the North Port–Sarasota–Bradenton metropolitan statistical area and includes LWR. People, including postal workers, use the terms interchangeably - even if not right. So, occasionally do I. It is transplants like you that like to make these distinctions to try and claim they are locals.

[Igor Blevin]

We have tried going soft on crime. Maybe it is time we go the other way. Ramp up the death penalty for murder. Make it routine for a repeat offense. Public handings. Public canings for 'youths". Cut off a hand for theft.

I mean, we are not getting anywhere the way we are currently going. Things are just getting much worse. Maybe we should just give the cops & courts authority to go full Def Con 5 and see what happens. Make it so the laws sunset in 5 years so if they turn out bad or abusive, they just go away and things bo back to "normal" bad and falling we have today.

I am talking about sentencing, not changing anything with due process, or miranda, or reasonable suspicion. None of that should change. Just take sentencing up 5 levels.

Maybe if we threw the book at first offenders, it would scare the copy cats straight and they would think twice about moving up the violent homicidal gang-banging thug felon food chain.

Seriously, what do we have to lose? We have tried everything else.

If we don't crush these professions crime gangs with their smash and grabs, car thefts, car jackings, and home invasions then we are going to become just like a bad Central American country.