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Getting a handle on Patterson Park car break ins

Posted at 11:21 PM, Nov 29, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-29 23:21:23-05

Brian Weiner is a father of two-year-old twins.

Keeping up with the kids can be a challenge, coming out to a broken window on the family car for the second time is a huge inconvenience.

“You get to spend the morning vacuuming glass out of the child seats and everything, so you’d rather not be doing that,” Weiner said.

Arch McKown is the Patterson Park Neighborhood Association Safety Chair.

He said over the last 5 weeks they've had at least 20 vehicle windows broken.

“A lot of people feel like it’s an assault on the sanctity of their vehicle or their property and it’s a quality of life issue,” said McKown.

He's teamed up with neighbors to install personal cameras and a network to track the crimes and where the criminals head.

He recalled a conversation one of the security cameras picked up.

They were like there’s a camera there and there’s a camera over there. He said there are too many cameras here man. They just went ugh and walked away.”

They’ve pinpointed three suspects responsible for the recent rash of break-ins.

The people of the neighborhood are doing all they can and McKown said police are doing a good job of arresting those responsible.

“We need the States Attorney’s Office to start prosecuting property crime for this neighborhood. Southeast District property crime is the type of crime we have here. It’s a quality of life issue for a lot of people and that’s the feedback I get from the neighborhood.”

The people in the neighborhood want simple things done like more street lights and tree trimming.

Weiner is frustrated because he’s stuck paying $200 bucks for a new window and there wasn’t even anything to steal in the vehicle.

“There’s nothing in these cars like it’s such a dumb thing to do where you’re just destroying something and there’s no gain for anyone. It’s just destroyed property, and everyone gets to pay to fix it and nothing ya know nothing changes.”