SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- Debris, needles and drugs hidden in a central coast cave.
On Thursday, Dylan Greiner of Santa Cruz posted a video on YouTube that showed the mess inside a cave at Collins Cove.
This was the second cave the city cleared out on West Cliff Drive since Central Coast News first reported on this in June.
When city leaders saw Greiner's video, Public Works crews cleaned out the cave.
The problem is there's no safe way to access these caves, so police can't even patrol them.
Now the city plans to get more aggressive.
"You see a lot of trash, a lot of leftover waste, a lot of clothing, a lot of leftover food products and the occassional needles and syringes, which is really a disgusting thing to find on our beaches," said Lance Miller of Santa Cruz.
But that's exactly what people are finding in caves along West Cliff Drive.
"It's absolutely a concern and it's really challenging because these are in places that are so hard to see and get to," said Don Lane, mayor of Santa Cruz.
The city said a big concern is the tide can come in and wash out everything inside of the caves.
In June, neighbors like Alex Viera told Central Coast News they have stepped up to do patrols on their own.
"We shouldn't have to worry about kids stepping on needles and having all the junk that comes with it floating down the beach," Viera said.
Now Lane said the city needs to do something more.
"There's some ideas about how to just make it so that's it not really accessible anymore, physically putting barriers like some rocks there, just something along that line," Lane said.
The city said it's also looking at sending out lifeguard boats to scope the area since the caves can't be seen from the cliff.
Public Works is exploring different options to hopefully close off the caves.
