Our family have been patrons of Stone Summit Atlanta, now Central Rock Gym Atlanta, since the gym opened in 2012. We have always heard the dreaded announcement of," If you are the owner of a *insert vehicle description*, please come to the front desk". Now that our climbing group has been the subject of that announcement 3 or 4 times so far in 2024 alone, we are becoming vocal about this public safety issue. We need your help to get Central Rock Gym to take our safety seriously. We should not have to wait for someone to get injured or killed by the culprits for them to do something about it.

Over the past few years, Stone Summit members have been pleading with staff to increase security. There is a security patrol that ccasionally checks the parking lots by driving around in a vehicle. They have long gaps between times that they are present. The people who are doing this are clearly waiting until the security guard drives away knowing that they have a long gap until the next check-in. More cameras have only recently been added, which is a step in the right direction, but long overdue. There are no fences surrounding the parking lot and the culprits seem to be mostly coming in through the woods behind the lots. There is nothing to deter them from hiding in those woods until the coast is clear.

Many of these break-ins are happening to vehicles that have nothing visible from the outside. Staff have repeatedly suggested to make sure everything is hidden and to leave doors unlocked so that they hopefully do not break the window to get in. While patrons should use caution and hide their belongings from sight, there is only so much we can do to avoid our cars being broken into if security is so light. We should not have to invite the culprits to search through our vehicle in order to avoid a broken window. Two people that we know of have been told directly by police that they have offered to do some sort of patrolling of the gym lots each night, but that this was turned down. (We are not sure if this is at the expensive of the gym or if this would be a free offering).

While we are upset about having to pay to get our windows replaced, we are growing more concerned for our overall safety at the gym. These criminals are organized and could be very dangerous. We do not know if they carry weapons. Thankfully no one has been hurt, but what is it going to take for the gym to finally take this seriously? I hope not another Harrison Olvey situation. Harrison was a young man who was shot and killed in Buckhead while working as a valet. He walked over to offer help to someone he thought was at their own car. The gunman shot him in order to get away from the scene of the break-in. What if someone returns to their car during a break-in and gets hurt or killed?

Many of us bring our children with us. The gym hosts birthday parties for kids often. For three break ins to our group alone, our childrens' car seats were covered in shards of glass. We have had to clean them out the best we can to then drive them home in a loud, windy vehicle since we have no window.

We understand that a good solution takes time to research and implement, but there have been years to implement security measures. We want to see Central Rock Gym take action to protect their patrons. We want the following actions to take place quickly, and we want transparency in the form of direct email communication to members on this issue.

1.  Hiring armed security and/or off duty police to monitor the back and gravel lot. There really needs to be a person in each lot to prevent gaps that the thieves can wait for.

2.  Fencing to separate the parking from the woods since this is where they are hiding and escaping to most often.

3.  Purchasing a cheap roll of collision tape so that when a car is broken into, the window can be covered properly to protect our vehicles. This is the very least you could do.

We would like to know what Central Rock Gym plans to do about these break-ins and we would like for them to take accountability for their lack of security. We urge you to sign this petition so that we can show our collected frustrations. We think it would make a larger impact if we were to financially effect the gym. If you are able to, please cancel or freeze your membership to show that until security changes, we do not wish to be a part of the gym. (After this Friday, 7/26/24, the fee to freeze will increase from $10 to $15 per month.) Reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook that reflect our disappointment in the gyms's security measures would also effect their business.

Hopefully Central Rock will take steps to help us feel safe coming back at some point.

Central Rock Gym Patrons