[representativerepublic]

it isn’t that bad...of course, at 3:00am is a different story...but yes, a mixed neighborhood, SOG City (south of Gandy Blvd)

but it isn’t exactly 40th St & Lake Ave.

[sarasmom]

Thanks for bringing that up.

Less than a month on base, he probably didn't know the area very well. Lots of “pockets” of very bad areas in Tampa.

But he wouldn't have been any safer in broad daylight in south Lakeland, sitting in his parked car at a strip mall.

A couple of local high school boys got car-jacked by a gun wielding black man at the Lake Miriam shopping center, forced to pick up an accomplice across the street at the McDonalds, and then forced to drive them to Bartow...it didn't make the news, though.

I wonder if the Lakeland Ledger added it to the crime map? /s