PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Tire marks on streets. They are a familiar sight in residential neighborhoods and are the remnants of rowdy rideouts. Groups gather at the unsanctioned “rally” events. The car meets are creating a nuisance and caused one resident to confront a group peeling out in her neighborhood.
In cell phone video, you can hear one man say to her, “This has nothing to do with you!” She responds: “Nothing to do? I need to wake up at 7 o’clock.”
It happened around 3:30 a.m. on a Saturday at an intersection. The partygoers had blocked off the street and cars were doing donuts.
“I told them, that’s not a racing area. You cannot do like this around here. I have to sleep. I deserve to sleep. I work like at least 60 hours a week,” the woman told Local 10 News. She didn’t want to tell us her name for safety reasons. She said she confronted the group out of frustration. She had called the police and waited but couldn’t take the revving sounds and her bedroom was vibrating from the cars.
Behind Local 10′s television studios in a warehouse parking lot in Pembroke Park, area business managers say that almost every weekend, cars line up and gather to practice doing stunts.
The frustrated woman tells us: “People cannot do this. It’s a crime, it’s completely a crime.”
Authorities say they are trying to crack down and break up the gatherings, but residents say they want more done. Police don’t advise that people take action like the woman we interviewed did.
When they do show up, everyone quickly scatters, which is what they say makes the pop-up events so difficult to stop.
If you hear or see one of the gatherings, law enforcement says to contact them and not confront the groups.
Local 10 News is continuing to followup with local authorities to find out what steps are being taken to stop the dangerous car meets.