Residents in Coles Crossing in Cypress say they walked outside one night and found two men circling the neighborhood pond with long air rifles — and no warning from their homeowners association that anything like that was about to happen. The late-evening scene, caught on video and shared by neighbors, quickly turned a routine wildlife nuisance into a public-safety and trust issue inside the subdivision.
In the video described in the original post, a resident confronts the men and asks what they’re doing. The men say the HOA hired them to kill “invasive ducks,” and they show the air rifles when asked, while also saying they hadn’t shot any ducks yet.
A quiet neighborhood amenity turned tense around 9 p.m.
Coles Crossing homeowners described the pond as the kind of place people use all the time — for dog walks, fishing, and casual chats with neighbors. That’s part of why the timing of the duck operation rattled people: one resident told ABC13 it happened around 9 p.m., when folks can still be out walking in the area.
Richele Bartkowiak, a long-time homeowner, said she was shocked watching the video. Her concern wasn’t just about the ducks. She said it was “a really scary sight” to suddenly see men with air rifles near a community space, without residents being told beforehand.
Homeowners say they weren’t warned about air rifles
Bartkowiak said the biggest complaint from neighbors was the lack of notice. In her account, nobody in the neighborhood was notified that contractors would be on-site with air rifles…