Residents of a flat on the Urkhovenseweg in Eindhoven are not reassured. In the night from Sunday to Monday, the same car was set on fire for the second time in 24 hours. It is already the ninth car that burns out in the parking lot in front of the flats in seven months. Residents are fed up and want landlord Woonbedrijf to install cameras. “Isn’t this madness?”
A few heaps of blackened plastic with some shattered glass are all that remain in the parking lot on Monday morning. The smell of burnt plastic and rubber still lingers nearby.
Residents saw the car burning from their apartment last night. “We already thought, no, not again, huh?”, says Miep ‘t Hart. She immediately thought of the car fires of June last year. Then eight cars went up in flames in the same parking lot. “That was terrible.”
“I can’t take our car upstairs, can I?”
Her husband adds: “Isn’t this madness? Who would do something like that?”, he wonders aloud. “Fortunately, our car was in the garage,” says Miep.
But not everyone has that luxury. People without a garage wonder where their car is still safe. “I just put it in the light, near a lamppost. Then everyone can see the car well. But it is actually nowhere safe,” says a resident who prefers to remain anonymous.
“This is to cry.”
“It’s really bad,” Wilma van Poppel responds. She becomes desperate. “Here’s my car,” pointing to a blue car in front of the entrance. “But what are we going to do with it? I can’t take our car upstairs, can I?”
Around noon, the owners of the burnt-out car unsuspectingly enter the parking lot. They stop at the parking bay with the heaps of ashes and can’t believe their eyes. “This is to cry, heartbreaking,” says the owner’s partner emotionally. He prefers to remain anonymous. “What happened to it? I’m scared of this.”
“She has all her savings in this.”
The couple had celebrated the turn of the year with friends. After a few glasses of alcohol, they thought it would be better to leave the car and go home on foot. “You think you’re doing the right thing… Well, a good start to 2023.”
On New Year’s Day, the couple suffered from a hangover, so they decided to pick up the car a day later. They had not yet heard of a car fire. “I just can’t believe it either. She has always worked hard for it. She has all her savings in this. Gone.”
“We don’t argue with anyone.”
The car was set on fire on both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The second time the car burned out completely. Residents of the flat think of a targeted action. But the man doesn’t want to know about that. “We don’t argue with anyone.”
The measure is full for the residents. They demand that the landlord Woonbedrijf installs cameras. According to the tenants, this has been requested more often, but Woonbedrijf has rejected it. The housing association has not yet been able to respond to questions.
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