Repair shop notes increase in car break-ins
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — An auto glass repair shop on the east side is reporting an uptick on car window break-ins as the summer comes to a close.
Lani Williams woke up Thursday morning to a smashed passenger window in her Honda Civic and a missing purse in the 1600 block of Fletcher Avenue.
“It’s a pain in the ‘blank,’” Williams said. “I don’t have a driver’s license. I don’t have anything. I don’t have a wallet.”
Reports of several other window break-ins popped up on neighborhood social media sites throughout the day Thursday. Auto Glass Now employee Krystal Mans called the trend an outbreak of smashed windows.
“We’ve seen them all the way in Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, all the way to the south side and Greenwood,” Mans said, “So, yeah, it’s getting really bad.”
Officers haven’t made specific arrests in Thursday’s thefts, but Mans said she believes it’s the work of teenagers.
“These kids nowadays need their butts whopped. That’s what it is. It’s this new generation of kids that kids that just don’t have any respect or morals and what can you do?”
In Williams’ case, she said she parked in a driveway behind her boyfriend’s home and locked her car but her purse was still inside.
“First, it’s kind of anger. You’re angry at yourself for doing something stupid, like I’m a not a stupid person, it’s not my first rodeo,” she said.
Williams said she went out for dinner after work Wednesday night and drove to Fletcher Avenue. She went into the home with hands full of leftovers and left her purse, a handmade leather item from Thailand, behind in the car.
“If you ever decide to not go back and grab your purse, don’t do that. Always take it out of your car,” she said.
Williams said someone most likely just after midnight smashed into the locked car and took her purse and wallet. She noted that within an hour or two, her four credit cards had been swiped from 10 to 12 times at local gas stations, charging about $500. When she made a police report, officers explained what might have happened.
“Chances are they could have sold those credit cards right there at that gas station to another group of people who then went down the street, down Michigan, to a Marathon and swiped it like seven, eight times,” Williams said.
The cards were used around 12:30 a.m. Thursday at the Speedway station at 1640 E. Washington St. and around 1:30 a.m. at the Marathon station at 1845 E. Michigan St. around 1:30 a.m.
Anyone with information on the stolen purse or fraudulent use of credit cards should call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana anonymously to submit a tip at 317-262-8477 or visit the Crime Stoppers website.
