Anyone Else Hearing about a “Recent uptick in car break-ins”?

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by Prince Of Petworth March 18, 2016 at 3:00 pm 16 Comments

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Photo by PoPville flickr user Erin

“Dear PoPville,

There have been 4 smash and grab break-ins (two last week, and two today) on Cathedral Ave, (2500 block?) – where we have a lot of people parking and then going to the zoo. They seem to be targeting SUVs. Anyone else reporting this across the city in the past week?”

EugeneKeiths

I have noticed a lot more broken car glass on streets and curbs while walking my dog in Logan Circle the past couple of weeks. Yesterday, a girl was crying next to her car that had a busted window and said to me, “I thought this area was safe.” I responded, “No area is safe if you leave something valuable visible in your car.”
- Hill Denizen
  
  You mean, “if you leave something in your car.”
  - TCircler
    
    I’m not even sure that is the basis for it. On Friday night, my car and about five others on my block were all broken in to. I left nothing in my car and there was nothing taken. The person rifled through my glove compartment, but my car is only a few weeks old so the only thing in it was the instruction manual. It seems like they don’t need to know if anything is in there to still break the window. I almost wish I had left something in there. It makes me even angrier that someone broke the window for no damned reason.
    - Leslie
      
      Same! My window was smashed on Saturday morning in broad daylight on 11th near Cardozo HS. There was absolutely nothing left out in my car; they didn’t take anything from the trunk or glove compartment. This is the second time in the last few months. After the first time, I learned my lesson and leave nothing out. I also was actually more annoyed that my window was smashed for no reason at all.
- Anonymous
  
  “Welcome to the Big City. You’re not in Scranton anymore.”
eva

In the area of the zoo I would suspect this has an almost perfect correlation to the recent uptick in tourist families on spring break who don’t live in places where leaving things in a parked car is verboten.
- Anonymous
  
  I grew up in NYC. My first car had a removable car stereo. In my second car, I could just take the faceplate off of the stereo and take it with me. Even when I moved to “safer” places I never left anything visible in my car. And after I park my car I never put anything in the trunk and walk away from it.
TJ

Auto burglaries are localized. There could be an uptick in one place, and a downtick in another. Don’t leave anything visible in your car and chances are you won’t need to worry.
- Rich
  
  Breaking almost always are cyclical and the cycles vary locally. There may be some uptick with the increase in clueless tourists as the weather warms but frankly 2 breaking at a time isn’t exactly a big crime wave.
- DC Tropics
  
  During my 10 years in Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle, our car was broken into, on average, every other year. Nothing visible. They got a travel shaver and some change the first time, and nothing after that. So yes, your car can be broken into even with nothing visible.
  - TCircler
    
    Agreed. My car and five others on my block all in a row got hit on Friday night. I had nothing visible in the car and nothing was taken.
Alex

I witnessed someone break into a car in Shaw 2 Sundays ago in the middle of the afternoon (on 7th by Compass). I was ~100 feet from the break-in and couldn’t believe how brazen the theft was.

Yes, I called 911 and gave a statement to police.
Bullwinkle

Yes, I have.
David

My jeep got hit on Cathedral last week. Parked in front of the house. Nothing was visible and they about $4 in change.
Anon

Yep. Saw shattered glass on my street for the first time in 8 years and my friend’s car was broken into during broad daylight at 16 and S a month ago. This city is starting to get worse after so many years getting better. Bowser better step up.
Ryn

Had my car my window smashed at P St on the Georgetown side of the Lauzan Bridge on the 14th of March in the middle of the day (1.30-3.00) The theif didn’t get in, but ruined the window. super weak.

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