Reader Gurnek S. writes in with a public service announcement:
Has anyone else noticed a higher volume of car window smash and grabs in the neighborhood recently? A month ago my girlfriend’s car and my roommate’s car were broken into on South Van Ness at 24th St within two days of each other. And yesterday, while walking my dog to Garfield Park I saw no less than 6 cars with smashed windows on Treat between 24th and 26th. Then again today, I saw another car window smashed on Folsom past CC up towards Bernal Hill. I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw a few more tomorrow. Anyway, best to tell everyone to take the face plate off that bomb stereo that’s in their hoopty.
Take the face plate off that bomb stereo in your hoopty!
[Photo by Daniel Hoherd]
Excellent. I am super glad to have left my car on 17th & Potrero last night
I’ve been seeing a bunch on Octavia between Fell & Page – the sides of those streets don’t seem very well protected, since for the most part there’s no one’s front doors there and not much foot traffic.
The other day I saw two fresh ones that happened in broad daylight, one on Octavia and Rose, the other on Page and Gough.
At least 9 cars on Franklin every single night
25th and S Van Ness here, definitely a rash of this. i wish there was something to be done about it.
My daily walk takes me from 17th on S. Van Ness, up 16th to Valencia, Valencia to Market then Market to Page and every day there is at least 3-5 new piles of glass.
And now I will give you the times of my walk so you all can stalk me.
Mine got smashed on 25th and SVN the other night, but nothing was taken. There was glass from the previous car there … I shoulda known better.
I used to live up on 25th and Rhode Island, a block away from the projects. Once a month, damn near every car on my block would get window smashed. My solution was to just leave my doors unlocked all the time. Never had another broken window, but I did get in my car a few times to see that all my trash had been re-arranged and my glovebox and ashtray rooted through No one ever stole my old britpop cassettes.
Word to the wise: either leave NOTHING (including trash) in your car and always leave your glovebox/ashtray open
-OR- just leave your car unlocked. If someone really wants to hotwire it and steal it, they’ll probably have no qualms about breaking the window first.
Jesus, what’s that smell?
Uh, yeah. Probably a vagrant, slept in the car. Or perhaps just used it as a toilet, and moved on.
Along Alabama between Cesar Chavez and Precita, there were at least four vehicles with smashed windows on Tuesday morning this week.
This is just common sense.
We live in the Mission. If you lack vigilance, you will be a victim of theft.
Best advice by far is by CeeLo. I do the same thing and haven’t had my window smashed in in over 2-years (however, I do hate knowing my car has had a visitor from time to time).
I pay $150 a month to have off street parking behind a locked gate. No street cleaning tickets, circling around for ever looking for a spot, and no visitors.
All the broken glass has been shredding my bike tires.
There have been several windows busted outside our window on Capp St. at 26th. My partner called the cops on a couple doing it but was just a bit too late.
I almost replied saying, “Hey me too!” and then I realized that it was you who left the comment, my love.
Valentines Day lives on!!!!!
Or you could remove yourself and your ride to Dublin.
Yup – definitely a lot of smashed windows on SVN and Shotwell the past 2 weeks. One of the best ways to avoid a smashed window is to not own a car.
And a great way to avoid having your tricycle stolen is not to own one, right, infant?
The best way to avoid tooth decay is to have all your teeth pulled out.
Seeing all this actually motivated me to clean all the crap out of my car this week. It’s been a window graveyard along SVN between 24-26th.
But if you guys DO get your windows broken, as I have 4 times since moving to the mission 4 years ago, get it fixed at A1 Glass on Oakdale at Loomis. 80 bucks, out the door, super nice, takes like 20 minutes.
A1 Glass on Oakdale . . . so that’s who’s out drumming up business at night.
So my question is: Where are the cops in all this? Has anyone forwarded this thread to the Mission precinct?
You could try the BART… this is the worst city to own a car, what are you thinking?
Naw, we’re maybe in the top 5. *Maybe*
The frequency of break in’s is certainly increasing on our end. We normally see at least three break in’s per week at the shop but just last week alone, we had ten.
Discussions with the vehicle owners often reveal that most had very little personal items visible inside the vehicle & often the glove box and/or console is the target. Losing a pair of sunglasses, a NetFlix DVD and a PG&E bill to the thieves. Original equipment stereos aren’t ever touched but aftermarket installed stereos are almost always stolen. We concur with the author, if your face late can be removed, take it off when you park your car. Furthermore, break ins are covered by your comprehensive coverage on your insurance policy but most insurance companies will only pay for the cheapest stereo, unless you can provide a receipt or photo to prove what you had, be prepared.
I see one a week by the Polish Club on 22nd.
my window was smashed, was parked on Albion. nothing was stolen just took out passenger side window
sounds like the junkies/smash & grab thieves are at it again. This was fairly common in the South Van Ness area in the mid to late 90s. It’s a low foot & car traffic street in the early morning hours.
A couple weeks ago, I saw several cars with their passenger windows busted on Hyde Street, below the reservoir at the top of Russian Hill, near Lombard.
So I woke up this morning to my window being smashed in on 25th in between cypress and S Van Ness along with about 4 other cars. They didnt take anything cause I’m not dumb enough to leave anything of value in my car. Still I hope these people get what they deserve.
Our car window got smashed in at 23rd & Treat (behind the taco truck) some time between last night and this morning. We had a milk crate full of misc stuff in the back seat, and a cell phone charger on the floor of the front seat. Nothing else.
They took two cell phone chargers and an A/C/lighter converter from the glovebox. No more than $30 worth of stuff. Didn’t take our CDs and didn’t even touch the milk crate.
last weekend my mother was going into a gave yard when she heard breaking glass. She went straight back to her car to discover that the window was broken in her car and a man was walking away with her hand bag.
she confronted him but he got away. now wait this is the sickest part. He was travelling in a people carrier with his wife and 2 small kids. What hope do those kids have.