Errant Bullets Anger Oxnard Mobile Home Park Residents

Jody Jones was stunned last month when a bullet pierced her living room roof and hit the floor about a foot away from where she and her husband had been watching television moments before.

A few days later, another resident in Oxnard’s Colony Mobile Home Park sent for a repairman to fix a leak in her bathroom ceiling and discovered that the hole had been made by a bullet.

These may sound like freak occurrences. But Ardys Hardin, president of the 150-unit homeowners’ association at the mobile home park, told the City Council this week that they are becoming all too common.

“We are really scared,” Hardin said, dangling a collection of plastic bags, each holding a .38-caliber, copper-jacketed bullet. “We’re thinking, ‘Next year, what are we going to do--hide under our beds?’ ”

While the damage is caused mostly on New Year’s Eve, when people celebrate by firing guns in the strawberry fields around the park near Pleasant Valley Road, residents have begun to worry about upcoming holidays.

They are afraid it is only a matter of time before someone is killed.

Ten people have reported finding bullets this month. Others have thrown the bullets away, believing that no one will do anything about them, Hardin said.

Councilman Manuel Lopez said the city has a history of such problems. The City Council has asked Police Chief Robert Owens to look into the matter.

Hardin said she would like to see officers patrol the nearby fields during holidays. She said she has a plan if her pleas go unanswered.

“I’m going to issue a formal invitation to everyone in higher offices to come to a yard party here to celebrate the Fourth of July,” she said.