Philadelphia residents fed-up with car break-ins: "It's just horrible"
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Neighbors in one Philadelphia community are fed up with car break-ins.
Police say car "smash and grabs" appear to increase on the weekends.
Just this past weekend – there were more than 100 citywide.
Frustration is mounting at American and Master Streets near Northern Liberties after a string of car smash and grabs over the weekend.
The smash and grabs included Nathaniel's car.
"I don't know why people choose to do what they do," said Nathaniel, who declined to give his last name.
Broken pieces of glass were scattered on the ground in several parking spots.
And cell phone video taken Sunday shows car after car with bags covering shattered windows in the same area.
"They came in here, they stabbed my seats. There's pretty big holes," Tim Stover said.
Stover showed CBS News Philadelphia his damaged seats and claimed several items were stolen from his car late Friday night.
"It's just horrible, it's just the way the city is going," Stover said.
There has been 5,949 car break-ins in Philadelphia so far this year, according to Philadelphia police data.
In other words, 35 car break-ins on average are being reported to Philly police every day.
"Don't leave anything valuable out there," Jana Tidwell, of AAA Mid-Atlantic, said.
Tidwel says there are ways to prevent car break-ins, including locking your doors, leave nothing visible or valuable inside and pick your parking spot carefully, looking for well lit areas and if possible under security cameras.
"Practicing those common sense things hopefully will help in most instances prevent this kind of event from happening," Tidwell said.
Philadelphia police say the number of car break-ins this year is trending lower than last year. But it's still above 2020 - before the pandemic.
