EAST POINT, Ga. — It’s been more than two weeks since residents of an East Point apartment complex found out that their very own front door can be unlocked by their neighbors’ keys.
Resident Linda Dean says her lock and key were changed the day after 11Alive's story ran, but she says that's not the case for some of her neighbors.
"See my lock? It's a much darker lock now," she showed reporter Paola Suro. "It's much darker than the first lock. The other key, I just threw it away. I just put it in the trash."
In late August, Dean discovered that her key could open the door of at least eight of her neighbors. In turn, their key could open hers.
"Anything could happen," she explained. "They could walk home, go to their house and somebody there. Or they could go home and their property won’t be there. Or be at home, doing whatever they need to do and somebody walks in on them. That situation, I don’t like neither one for any of my neighbors.”
She said that when they came to fix her lock, management was surprised and apologized to her.
"They were stunned," she said. "They couldn’t say anything. It could’ve been the builders. But they haven’t did them all yet and they did say they were going to change all the locks."
Dean says she is now speaking out for her fellow neighbors who still have an old lock and key.
"They express frustration, and wondering when they’re going to get to their apartments," she said. "A lot of these are single, young ladies with children."
When we reached out to Wada Cooper Companies in August, they didn't respond. Weeks later, they sent 11Alive the following statement:
"Safety and security are of utmost importance to our company; we conducted an investigation beginning the morning after we learned of the malfunctioning keys. Our maintenance staff promptly changed the locks on all impacted units. We also ordered new deadbolts for the entire building which will be installed once they are delivered. No additional security incidents have been reported."
Dean says she just wants the best for everyone.
"This is a family here to me and I want everybody safe," she said. "I mean, even the ones that work in the office, I want them safe because you don’t want anyone to hear that something happened to one of your tenants or one of the managers in the office or the maintenance man. We just need things taken care of."
She believes they will get around to fixing all deadbolts. In the meantime, Dean says she still sleeps with a door stopper and with her alarm on because she'd "rather be safe than sorry."
"I know they’ve got a big job to do but try to do it as fast as they can and that will make all the tenants pleased because I’m pleased with what happened – my lock got changed," she said. "I’m pleased with that. But I know they’ve got other jobs to do but stick to the main job that needs to be done to secure your tenants."
Here is the original story than ran in late August: