Westwood families facing costly repair bills after multiple car break-ins

Around 4:30 a.m. on Thursday, a home security camera recorded a man approaching an SUV parked in front of a house on McKinley Avenue in Westwood.A tree obscures the camera lens, but the camera captures the sound of one of the SUV’s windows being broken.The man in the video then places the sheet of mostly shattered glass, held together by an adhesive material, in a front yard.”To see my neighbors go through this as well as myself, it’s upsetting,” Al Jenkins said.Last fall, someone stole Al Jenkins’ wife’s car and drove it from McKinley Avenue to Avondale. Jenkins rushed outside when he heard about Thursday’s rash of break-ins.”Just on my block alone has been eight to 10 cars overnight,” Jenkins said. “I know people from both ends of my street — so here it is, 5:30, 6 a.m., and we’re all outside, like, who else’s cars got hit, you know.”From McKinley to Lefeuille Avenue, and from Werkastle to Eugenie Lane, WLWT’s Todd Dykes saw at least a dozen broken car windows, with many covered by garbage bags. The cost to repair a broken car window can be a few hundred dollars.”They’re just boom, boom, boom,” Terry Thomas said.Thomas is a window repair expert with Glass America. On Thursday, he replaced a window for a car owner on Eugenie Lane.”We’re just booked up every day. We’re slammed right now,” he said.Thomas said car break-ins are not limited to Westwood.”I went all the way out to, on the east side, and did some over there, up in Mount Lookout — in that area — and then up in Mount Washington,” Thomas said. “So, it’s everywhere.”Police have not made any arrests. Detectives believe the person responsible was probably searching for guns.So far, items reported stolen include cash, bank cards and someone’s work keys.

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