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Castro's Neighbors Enjoy Some Relief From Media Blitz

Angela Garcia and her boy, with a few remaining news crews behind her on Seymour Avenue (pic by Brian Bull)
Angela Garcia and her boy, with a few remaining news crews behind her on Seymour Avenue (pic by Brian Bull)

There are now only a few satellite trucks and camera crews left here on Seymour Avenue, ….nowhere near the crowds of reporters, neighbors, and curiosity seekers that clogged the area last week.

After wrapping a tall fence around Castro’s house to protect the crime scene, law enforcement officials have finally opened up the street again.

That sits well with Angela Garcia. She holds her son in her lap as TV crews set up another live shot across the way.

“It feels very nice because before we had to give IDs and show information or a bill with the address and stuff, just to get inside the house!" laughs Garcia. "We had to prove we were really coming to this house.”

Garcia says her aunt lives here, the same house that Amanda Berry fled to to call 911 and report Ariel Castro to Cleveland police. Garcia says her aunt was shaken by the event, and couldn’t sleep.

Another local resident, Jovita Marti, says while it’s good to see the crowds and flocks of reporters going away, she appreciated most of the coverage.

“Because the truth came out. And everybody knows about Ariel, about the monster that he is," says Marti. "And I’m real, real, real…I mean, happy that those girls are alive and their families are enjoying them now.”

Marti says she just ran into Gina DeJesus’ mother, Nancy Ruiz, at a local grocery store.

“And I embrace her so hard, that I…I almost break her bones. Because I was so happy to see her. And I see her now as a different person, happy and full of the joy.”

The case against Ariel Castro is still in progress. He stands accused of multiple counts of rape and kidnapping, with possibly more on the way.

The people who shared the street with him are eager to get back to normal life.

Angela Garcia looks across the street at the house Castro called home, but three women called a prison.

“I think that they should tear it down,” she says.