Neighbors react to chaos at Barefoot Lake

Imagine being scared to leave your home on the weekends.

Ana and Anrik understand the feeling all too well.

“Trying to enjoy our time is getting destroyed by them trying to enjoy theirs,” said Anrik.

“It’s a lot of guns, it’s a lot of bad people. I don’t like that for my kids,” said Ana.

Between the parties, gatherings, races, drug and alcohol use, the brawls, the littering, the noise and even the drownings – it’s out of control.

“Whatever they want to do in the lake, because it’s not our property, we don’t really care as much for it,” said Anrik, “but when you’re getting into our time of us being able to go to the streets and then my mom being able to drive to work, that’s where I seem to have a problem with it.”

Ana got a video of the street races blocking the road last Sunday.

“The men told me, ‘Oh, go back, go back.’ Hey, I’m driving for the street. I don’t drive for them. I’m going to Estero, and I need to go in the side?” said Ana.

She says this happened the same day a huge brawl broke out where a man is now facing a handful of charges.

Neighbors even say the street racers crash into mailboxes and trash cans, not once taking responsibility for the damage they cause.

It’s been more than a year since this family has been able to enjoy their once-quiet neighborhood.

“When my dad was alive, he would take the babies all the time to — on the weekends — to the lake, but that was when it was more controlled,” said Anrik.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office took to social media laying out a warning for the people causing utter chaos at the lake every weekend.

They say they’re going to increase patrols in the area during peak times moving forward.

Plain and simple, they said, if you’re thinking about partying at the lake next weekend, think again.