SAN ANTONIO — As she was closing up shop for the night recently, Ana Fernandez, the owner of Chamoy City Limits, said she suddenly felt like prey because of an incident caught on surveillance cameras.
Fernandez said that, during the day, the Hildebrand corridor west of San Pedro is an active, happy place. But when the sun goes down, that changes.
"It turns into a dead zone. There's no traffic and no foot traffic, and the street is really dark," Fernandez said.
Reviewing video captured by the dash camera of a vehicle in the parking lot, Fernandez pointed out a man pulling into the lot of a business that was closed across the street.
Fernandez said the man waited in a dark, concealed spot until she and an employee went outside to retrieve flags from the parking lot. At that point, the video shows the man suddenly emerging from a hidden place and quickly sprinting towards the two women.
Fernandez said as soon as she saw him, she urged her employee to get safely inside.
"He was coming at us really, really quickly, so we had about two seconds to get back inside," Fernandez said, adding that she tried to remain calm because she didn't want the man to pounce. "I was very calm because I didn't want him to think I was afraid; if he thought I was afraid, he would probably run toward us. When you run, they chase like a dog."
She said the last eight months have been difficult, with a number of criminal incidents, but this is the first that included a direct threat.
"We've had somebody breaking a window trying to get in. Somebody tried to enter the door. Somebody stole my generator on my food truck, and somebody went up to the roof and took the whole air conditioning unit."
The small-business owner who started with a food truck and expanded to a brick-and-mortar store said she has survived the pandemic and the recession, but she will not take the risk of being injured just to remain open after dark.
"Between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. it has been busy for us, but we are not going to be open past dark because this street really changes after dark," she said. "Us having to close at those hours probably equated to hundreds of dollars each day."
Fernandez believes the Hildebrand corridor is just too dark to risk someone being hurt or killed, and that she wishes the city could boost lighting in the area.
A brief survey of street lights surrounding the 400 block reveals the area meets the city's criteria for lighting, which includes: lights at intersections, on major curves and keeping gaps between lights to less than 600 feet.
Because the lighting need is so great across San Antonio, it can take months or years to make it through the process.
Here is more information about how the process works, and here is where you can get it started by requesting a street light.
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