A trail of shattered glass was the only evidence police found when they responded to around a dozen reports of car windows having been broken out on Elyria's west side Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
According to police reports, it doesn't appear the suspect or suspects stole anything from the vehicles. Instead, it looks like the windows were shot out with a pellet gun.
There were three reports of busted windows in the 200 block of Warren Avenue; two reports in the 300 block of West 11th Street; three reports from the 700 and 800 blocks of South Logan Street, and a smattering of other broken car windows scattered across the south and west sides of town.
One of the unfortunate victims was Lana Altomare.
"We walked outside and you could see something had hit right in the corner here and shattered this window all the way up,” Altomare said as she surveyed the two shattered windows on her Ford Expedition. “It hit this window and shattered it.”
The broken windows left jagged edges of fractured glass on the two rear windows on the driver’s side of her vehicle. She had parked it in front of her house on the street, the same way she’s parked it for 15 years.
A small quilt of duct-tape and trash bags now cover where her windows used to be.
“They have nothing better to do than to run out and shoot windows because they think it’s fun,” Altomare said. “They have no regards for anything or anyone. These parents are just letting their kids do whatever they want to do. If they want to go out and destroy people’s property, that’s exactly what they are doing.”
Altomare and some of her other neighbors believe the culprits could be a group of teenagers that have caused other issues in the neighborhood in recent months. However, according to police reports, there is no known suspect description.
“We have a very friendly neighborhood we live in. We can walk around the block and it’s very friendly. What’s going on with the people that want to come to these neighborhoods and do stupid [stuff] like this because they think they can get away with it,” Altomare said. “We just don’t have the means to go out and keep fixing things when somebody thinks it is a joyride to destroy other people’s property. It is ridiculous.”
