AURORA, Colo. — Homeowners in Aurora's Cross Creek neighborhood say they're fed up with the behavior of the high school students across the street, and they feel the school district isn't doing anything about it.
The last straw was Wednesday morning, about half an hour before a Denver7 crew was scheduled to arrive to highlight their concerns.
Bridgette Petit's home surveillance camera captured a group of students stealing a neighbor's bicycle before stealing her son's.
"I look out the back window, and I was like, "That looks like [my son] Ethan's bike,"" she said. As soon as she realized it was his, she ran out of her home and chased after the kids.
"I'm screaming at the kids like, "Hey, hey," and then they finally hear me screaming at them and they dropped the bikes in the field and keep running towards the school," Petit said.
Those kids kept running toward Vista PEAK Preparatory, a high school across the street. Other homeowners say it's just the latest example of the problems they've noticed for several years.
"The kids ditch school, and on their lunch breaks will come to our parks in the neighborhood and vandalize, do drugs, have sex, cuss, steal packages," Cara Morefield said.
Denver7 watched Wednesday as several dozen students made their way from the school grounds to the nearby neighborhood park during lunch hour. Morefield says this happens at all hours of the school day.
"They've cost us thousands of dollars in damages. They lit a bush on fire last year," she said.
On Tuesday, she and her husband, Mike Doublin, say they saw as many as 40 students fighting. They called the police and the school when they say one of them threatened to pull out a gun.
"They said it wasn't their issue because it didn't happen on their property. But it will be their issue when a kid or multiple kids have guns in the school building," Morefield said.
"Everybody just throws their hands up and says, "Nothing we can do about it," especially when it's off campus. That to me, it's just unheard of," Doublin added.
Denver7 asked Aurora Public Schools whether there are any plans to make the school's open-campus policy more restrictive. A spokesperson sent the following statement in response:
"We continue to work with Cross Creek homeowners and residents to address concerns about issues in their neighborhood. This neighborhood is where many of our Vista PEAK Preparatory students live. We understand that residents want everyone in their community to be respectful of others and we continue to work with families to foster respect between our students, neighbors and the community."
The homeowners hope something gets done before someone gets hurt.
"What else has to happen?" Petit asked.