AHWATUKEE, AZ — Residents at an Ahwatukee apartment complex say foul balls from a neighboring school's baseball and softball fields have caused property damage and created safety hazards for years — and they want to know who is responsible.
Anne, a tenant at the Indigo Apartment complex, says she has collected roughly 300 softballs and baseballs over more than two years. The balls, she says, are popped up from the fields at the neighboring St. John Bosco school. She showed stacks of boxes filled with the collected balls sitting in her garage.
"Imagine that hitting on your head," Anne said after she dropped one on the ground.
Anne says her doorbell camera captured her van window being busted out, and she showed dents on the hood of another one of her cars — damage she suspects came from foul balls. Her camera also recorded other people narrowly missed by falling pop-ups, including children. She says one of her family members was hit in the head by a ball.
"When we have little kids, I'm worried about them. I have to worry about my dogs. I was hit once," Anne said.
Emma Abele, 98, also lives at the complex and says her garage door has dents and once had a broken window from foul balls. She says she keeps watch during her daily walks.
"If you walk in the afternoon, it can be a little bit hazardous," Abele said.
Anne says she was offered the chance to move to a different apartment but declined, saying that would only make the foul balls someone else's problem.
"I'm at my wits' end, I've tried everything I can think," Anne said.
We reached out to the apartment complex several times but never heard back.
We spoke with the principal of St. John Bosco by phone and through email. The school said it contracts with outside ball clubs that use the fields after regular school hours and that it has not received a foul ball complaint since 2024.
The school was also there first — the apartments were built 10 years after the school opened. Over the years, the school has added trees and a backstop as a buffer.
In a statement, the principal said in part that the school, "strive[s] to be good neighbors and remain[s] interested in partnering with our neighbors on constructive way to improve our neighborhood. From day 1, we strive to provide a safe campus and a quality Catholic education from our students, in addition we have always sought to be a good, Christian neighbor to our surrounding neighbors in our community."
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