Neighbors tell Glendora council a man living in a car is endangering children; police say he is known and will meet with residents

Multiple residents told the Glendora City Council on Jan. 14 that a man living in a vehicle beside a house near the high school has made their neighborhood unsafe, sometimes pointing weapons and using drugs in public. The residents asked city officials and police to take action.

The complaints came during the council’s public comment period. Speakers said the man, identified in the meeting as Andrew Garcia, has pointed a BB gun at young people, been seen with a knife, smoked fentanyl in public and roamed in the middle of the street, disrupting families’ ability to use yards and sidewalks. “My kids can’t go outside,” Brittney Myers told the council. Tracy Gorski said neighbors have video of the man carrying a knife and that she believes he has been arrested repeatedly: “We have watched him light up and smoke Fentanyl, per the Glendora Police Department, repeatedly.”

The council did not take formal action during public comment. Police Chief (name not specified in the record) said the department is aware of the man, has arrested him multiple times and will follow up directly with residents. “All of our police officers know Andrew Garcia. We’ve had a lot of contact with him. We’ve arrested him several times. That’s all public information,” the chief said. He asked residents to call and report incidents so officers can respond and offered to have the department’s Community Impact team set a meeting with the neighborhood to gather more information.

Mayor Fridendahl and other council members acknowledged the speakers’ concerns and invited the police chief to meet with the residents outside the meeting room after public comment to gather contact information and discuss follow-up. The mayor also asked residents to add phone numbers to their speaker cards so staff and police can reach them.

Speakers asked the city for more decisive action, noting past calls to police that neighbors said did not lead to long-term solutions. Several residents said the person living in the car is not the owner of the property and raised a separate code-enforcement concern about vehicles and debris on the site. City staff told the council that some recent cleanup at that private property was performed by private parties and that the property owner has begun to respond.

The police chief said the department would set a time to meet with the residents and encouraged anyone who witnesses criminal activity to call 911 immediately. The council and staff said they would monitor follow-up and expected the police department to coordinate next steps with the neighborhood.

Ending: The council did not vote on an enforcement action at the meeting. Residents have been told the police department will arrange a follow-up meeting and asked to continue reporting incidents to 911 so officers can respond.