Vandals smashed the windows of 21 cars parked outside two Bustleton condominiums and an apartment complex over the weekend, police said.
Capt. Joseph Zaffino, the 7th Police District commander, said 13 autos parked at Pathways Condominiums, 9921 Bustleton Ave., and five at Regency Condominiums, 9945 Norwalk Road, were broken into sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning. Three vehicles were hit outside an apartment building at 600 Red Lion Road, he said in a phone interview Monday. Zaffino said police did not have descriptions or video of the vandals.
The vandals worked quickly and quietly. And they didn’t just smash windows, said Kay Hebding, Pathways’ manager. Items were stolen from some of the cars.
“It’s amazing no one heard anything,” Hebding said in a phone interview Monday.
She said she knows tools and GPS were taken from some of the vehicles. The captain said the vandals stole items from five of the 21 targeted vehicles.
A wallet as well as vehicle consoles also were taken, the captain said.
All the vehicles were locked, he said. Each had at least one window smashed.
Some personal items were dropped after they were taken out of cars, Hebding said. For example, one victim’s work ID tag was found on the ground. So was personal mail.
“People shouldn’t leave anything visible in their cars,” she said.
That’s a warning often repeated by Philadelphia police: Don’t leave anything of value in your car; if you must, keep it out of sight.
Zaffino said he had put out a neighborhood alert about the break-ins and asked residents to report any suspicious behavior by calling 911. ••
