Teenagers trespass for pool party at Tara Preserve

Three unidentified teenagers decided to celebrate President’s Day by trespassing into the Tara Preserve community pool in the middle of the night.

At around 2 a.m. two boys and a girl approached the fence and tested it for an electric current. They then proceeded to scramble over the fence and get in the pool for about an hour, Jim Kaluk, field manager at Tara Preserve, said. They had beer with them, and he saw one of them wearing a Braden River High School Pirates shirt; however they have not been identified and it’s unknown if they are high school- or college-aged.

Kaluk watched the video of the event and heard one teenager say the surveillance cameras didn’t record at night, despite a sign stating the contrary hanging on the pool fence. He brought up the pool party at the Community Development District meeting Tuesday, Feb. 23.

“It’s lucky that none of them got hurt; when they couldn’t get in the pool they went over the fence,” Kaluk said. “With school and college breaks coming up, we need to think about this.”

After the meeting Kaluk said he only wanted the supervisors to be aware of these occurrences in case they should increase; however, another incident happened Thursday.

Kaluk has remote access to the speaker system at the pool via his iPhone, on which he can also check the live surveillance video. Thursday at around 9 p.m., an alarm went off on his phone, and he noticed a young man approach the pool gate and try to forcibly open it. When Kaluk asked him what he was doing via the speakers, the young man took off, he said.

Vice Chairman Dan Powers asked what the CDD’s liability would be if one of the kids had injured themselves while breaking in, despite them trespassing.

“It’s always a possibility,” said CDD counsel John Vericker.