I lived at Prado from 1988 to 2006. The system here doesn't allow you to enter a year
earlier than that. I lived there practically the whole time I worked at the hospital.
It used to be called Pinebrook and was
an adults only apartment complex. Shortly after I moved into a two bedroom place
with a roommate the F-ing California government decided it was discrimination to not
allow children in ALL apartment complexes. That's when the noise problem really got
started. There is no place for the children to play so they wind up running between
apartments and through the parking areas making lots of noise. It was designed for
adults only so putting children in there just made things worse. It's true that the
place can be noisy from partiers but it just depends on where you live. I've had to
listen to VERY loud music and complaints to the managers didn't seem to help. The
parking situation is a problem with people parking in your space and YOU have to call
the towing company to get a car towed out of your space. When you do that you have to
provide all kinds of info to the tow truck driver to prove you are the rightful owner
of that space. It's simply not worth the hassle or the potential for revenge from the
idiots that have already shown they don't give a damn about the rules. I read through
the reviews here with great intrest and can attest to many of the things I've read
here.
There are a lot of roaches there but I never really had a bug problem in my
place. I'm not a clean freak so I guess I was just lucky. I lived in a two bedroom
downstairs place with a couple of different roommates and later an upstairs place by
myself. The upstairs place was near the southern pool (24539 Los Alisos Blvd) and I can
NOT recommend it! The noise in summer is intolerable and a lot of the kids have little,
or no, manners or respect for others. When I lived in the two bedroom place
(24545 Los Alisos Blvd) it was quieter and cooler than the upstairs place. The AC is
in the living room area and doesn't help you keep cool when you sleep and Laguna Hills
gets some terrible heat waves that surrounding areas don't seem to suffer as much.
The heat is electric cables in the ceiling and can cost a fortune to keep warm in
the winter and they do not allow electric space heaters so your stuck with it.
I can honestly say I would have gleefully shot the leaf blower squad if it was legal
to do such a thing. I know they didn't run those screaming machines every day but
it seemed like they did and it just spread the dust around making things messier.
I saw some fat idiot using his leaf blower around the cars in the parking lot and
he was swinging it to and fro HITTING the cars! I reported it to the managment and
nothing was done about it. Yep, same idiot doing the same thing next time they were
out blowing crap every which way. They also never seemed to pick up the crap they
were blowing out from the parking stalls into the driveway. When I first lived there
the dumpsters were emptied maybe twice a week. When I left they emptied them every
other day and they STILL overflowed onto the ground. Just terrible!
As to other posts here: Yes, a woman was murdered at Prado. It was long ago and took
place during the remodel they did in the late 1990's. She was an hispanic woman who
used to clean the apartments between tenants. She didn't seem to speak much english
but always smiled and nodded at you if you said "hello" to her in passing. She was
stabbed to death in an apartment she was cleaning by some latino guy who was working
for one of the construction crews doing the remodels. He ran to Mexico and they knew
who he was from info they got from the other construction guy's but I don't know if
they were ever able to find him. I did hear about the guy who threw his wife off of
the balcony but I'd heard they were both nuts and no one would have been surprised if
she had thrown HIM off the balcony. And yes, they did have a stalker, or peeping tom,
at the complex. A maintenance worker told me that the Sheriffs knew who he was but
hadn't been able to catch him in the act yet. By the way, the maintenance crew always
seemed fine to me but I never called them for anything in my apartments. I just fixed
stuff myself.
One problem they had was constant water heater problems. I cannot even remember
how many times I turned on the hot water only to find cold water. Once again, it
seems to be where you live. At 24545 Los Alisos, no hot water problems; at 24539 Los
Alisos, constant hot water problems. I do have to commend the staff at the front office
when I called once about the hot water being out again and I needed to take a shower.
They offered to let me take a shower in one of the models! That was pretty cool of
them.
The laundry rooms were fine until they "upgraded" the machines to the front
loaders that always seem to have water trapped somewhere in the bottom where it sets
and putrifies. The old top loaders never had that problem. Also, I LIKED the coin operated
machines. The new machines only worked with a card that you had to reload at the front
office in the room next to the business office. At least that was the one I like to
use because I could use cash in that one. The only other card machine was in the laundry
room attached to the front office and that one only took credit cards. I think they
changed to card machines when the boyfriend of the manager got ahold of her keys and
stole all the money from the machines coin boxes to the tune of about 3,000 dollars.
I think she resigned or was fired not to long after that and that was a shame, she
was really nice. And I did see a machine with a badly torn up coin box. They didn't
get into it because it's like a safe but that was probably another reason to change
to card operated machines. They also used to have the laundry rooms open 24/7 but the
attempted thefts might have been why they changed that. They actually had issued keys
to the laundry rooms at one time and we had keys to the walk in gates as well. That
was before they got tired of fixing the gates that the kids, teens and god knows who
else kept breaking the locks. I actually saw a teenager yanking on the gate one day
to get it open because he didn't have a key and didn't want to walk the 400 or so
feet around to the front entrance that anyone can enter through.
Someone here also mentioned the gates that you had to have a remote to gain entrance.
They are right about people hanging around the gates in their cars waiting for someone
with a remote to follow into the complex. I've seen several cars sitting in various
spots idling just waiting for their chance. They also would dash in when you drove
out before the exit gate could close. And, yes, the gates at the front entrance would
break all the time. I lived close enough to the front gates that I could hear the gate
through my open windows when it was off it's track rattling back and forth trying to
close but kept hanging up on the rough pitted asphalt. I would always risk my personal
safety when I saw this by jumping in front of the gate as it rattled/rolled out trying
to close, grab it and quickly pick it up and get it back on the track. I know it was
risky, but if the gate broke, especially at night, it could be a real problem to get
in or out of the complex. Besides, after doing it as often as I did, you get quite
good at it!
One of my roommates told me that he thought, from walks he had taken at night, that
most of the shady element lived on the North side of the complex, but I can't attest
to that myself. I did have my trucks spare tire stolen from under my truck one night.
Once I realized it was gone I walked along the row of parking spaces looking under
the other trucks and could see that I wasn't alone, about 5 trucks had their chains
or cables that hold the tire up under the truck bed hanging down just like mine. I
didn't bother to report it to the police. It wasn't even a good tire, it was all worn
out and needed to be replaced! I did read a story in the OC Register once about how
some people in a downstairs apartment were watching some sports show on TV with their
front door open and some robbers walked in, put guns in their faces and stole there
stereo and lots of CD's. The fire someone here mentioned happened to the block of
buildings right next to the 24545 Los Alisos building. I thought my place was going
to burn too, but there had been a light rain earlier that the Fire Dept. credited
with saving the surrounding buildings from damage. The fire was started because the
people living in a downstairs apartment had run an extension cord from their apartment
over to the laundry room and were stealing power for their apartment. I'd heard that
they were making drugs in the apartment. While I was outside with other neighbors I
saw them coming back in their BMW and when they came around the far corner and could
see which apartment was on fire they turned around and tore out of there fast! So, I
don't know what they were doing in there, but they certainly didn't want to talk to
the Fire Department about it.

I only lived there for so long because I didn't have much money and it was one of
the cheapest places to rent in Laguna Hills. Plus I worked at Saddleback Memorial
Medical Center and I could walk to work in ten minutes. So, if you have the money,
rent somewhere else.

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