Vandal hits at least 15 cars overnight in Detroit's North End neighborhood
(CBS DETROIT) – At least 15 car owners in Detroit's North End neighborhood are looking for a repair shop Thursday after waking up to find their windows smashed.
Shattered glass from those cars littered the sidewalks at Holbrook and Brush Streets.
Victims say vandals have struck cars in this area three times within the last month. Some of them were spared the first two times, but not on Thursday.
They didn't take anything from Ahmad Shabazz's car but left a mess behind.
"I still have my car, which is a good thing. But you know, this is definitely a headache that I could have gone without — a financial headache, too," Shabazz said.
He'll likely pay out of pocket for the repairs, which will likely be the case for the 14 other car owners hit overnight.
Peter DiGennaro estimates it'll cost him about $300–$400. The same goes for Myah Scholz, who had two windows damaged.
"Which is extremely unfortunate because I'm currently on leave from work. I've been on leave for the last two weeks, so I haven't gotten a paycheck in two weeks. So this is just the icing on top of the cake for everything I've been going through for the last month," Scholz said.
Detroit police officers from the 3rd Precinct were out taking reports and reviewing footage from Project Green Light cameras, which top brass say got a good look at the suspect. However, they're not releasing those images just yet.
They do note that overall crime in this precinct is down 20 percent.
"Have we seen overall break-ins in the community? Absolutely. It does happen. We're seeing a reduction overall. Again, we talked about a small percentage of individuals that often will commit multiple crimes. And it's our goal, and our strategy is to locate those individuals and hold them accountable," DPD 3rd Precinct Commander Matthew Fulgenzi said.
"It kind of shocks your system a bit, you know, because you want to be secure where you're living. You want to park and know that you're going to be good to get back in the morning to your car to go to work," Andrew Nazzaro, whose car has previously been broken into, said.
Nazzaro and many victims live at the Holbrook apartments and said they wish management would open the lot across the street.
"Because at this point, it's just getting ridiculous. But this would alleviate a lot of the street parking pressure, for sure. And I would gladly pay $50 a month more on my rent just for a secured parking space," Nazzaro said.
CBS News Detroit did contact the owner of Holbrook Apartments, Friedman Real Estate, of Farmington Hills, asking about the lot, but we haven't heard back.
You can remain anonymous by calling CrimeStoppers at 1-800-SPEAKUP if you have any information regarding this case.
