Neighbors Really Loved Their Local Crack-Dealing Grandma

By Dodai Stewart | October 7, 2013 | 4:50pm

Latest

Fifty-eight year old Theresa Anderson of Buffalo, New York, will be sentenced this week after pleading guilty to running a 12-year crack-selling business. And while she and her entire family were involved in the criminal operation, residents of her block say things were safer when she was around.

The AP reports that Anderson admitting running the Anderson Drug Trafficking Organization, which had that pretty bold no-nonsense official name and employed her common-law husband, three adult daughters, two of the daughters’ boyfriends, Anderson’s son and a granddaughter.

Most Popular

Anderson, who owned five houses on the same street, was busted in February of last year, and it seems like the neighbors are sad about it:

“I miss Theresa, I really do,” said Debra Walker, who has lived on Deshler [Street] for more than nine years. When Anderson was in control, “I actually felt safer. Now my place has been broken into.”

She’s not the only one:

Neighbor Deanna Gresko said prostitutes and their johns have now invaded the street, something that didn’t happen when Anderson and her family were around.

“There was people here. There was people watching,” Gresko said, adding that Anderson “wasn’t a gang-banger drug dealer who would threaten you.”

Dannette Coleman recently moved to the street. She’s never met Anderson, but says: “I heard there was a lot of drug activity but that she was a nice lady… That she took care of her community.”

[The Grio, Newser]

Image via hugolacasse/Shutterstock.