Vandalism repairs add up for car owners
5:16 p.m. Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Thieves can cost car owners more than just what's been stolen from their vehicles. Replacing broken windows can be quite costly. One local glass repair shop has kept busy easing the pains of those affected by broken glass.
Johnny Cleaver has kept busy this holiday season working the phones, scheduling repairs and then hunting down the glass to put in the cars.
"With the holidays around the corner, we've seen a lot of vandalism. Lots of thefts and break-ins," says Cleaver.
Since the beginning of December, he's replaced nearly 100 windows and says most of them appeared to be broken on purpose. Cleaver says he's seen a lot of the edges of doors and windows damaged due to somebody trying to prying them open. He says he's even seen rocks and bricks left in the cars they were thrown through.
But Topeka police say they haven't seen a major increase in the number of car vandalisms in the area. They say its just a simple fact of life in the Capitol City. "There is always vandalism and broken windows, key scratches, all different sorts of vandalism," says Topeka Police spokesman Major John Sidwell.
Topeka Vandalism Map
Track recent incidents of vandalism around Topeka here.
Only about ten percent of those cases reported are ever solved. This leaves the burden of repairs on the car owners and their insurance company. Though Cleaver says the price of glass has gone down, fixing damage done by vandals can really add up. The cost to repair a windshield can be from $160 to $200. The average cost to repair a window can be anywhere from $160 to $180 dollars a pop. Cleaver says it could get up into the thousands if the glass is for sportscars or high-end imports.
Topeka Police don't track the numbers of vandalism, so they don't know exactly how many cases happen each year. Just looking through the police reports in the past couple of days, we found 41 cases.
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