WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — A smashed window and a stolen airbag have a woman in Northwest D.C. and her neighbors calling on police to do more to prevent crime.
Fabiana Perera said her car has been targeted twice in the span of about two weeks while parked along Kansas Ave NW in Brightwood Park. She and her husband will have to spend a minimum of $1,500 to fix what was broken and stolen.
“We are a working family. We have two kids. We have one car. Like, this is not a good situation,” Perera said.
Perera went to take her baby to daycare Monday morning when she thought her husband might have accidentally left the back window down. But when she opened the door, she realized that wasn’t the case.
“Black glass was coming out and I realized that our car window had been smashed on the baby side,” Perera said.
She cleaned it up and got in the driver’s seat when she noticed the airbag was stolen.
“Our car is now missing a window, so I can’t park it on the street. We have to pay the insurance deductible again, and we’re not getting really a great response from D.C.,” said Perera.
That’s because just two weeks ago, her windshield was smashed.
“That happened to other neighbors on our block and down the block. We tried calling the police. And the police said, ‘To be honest, we’re never going to find this person. It doesn’t matter if you have video,'” Perera said.
Her neighbor Cindy Dashdorj isn’t surprised.
“I’ve had issues of my own where I’ve had to reach out to police. And I just realized they’re not as helpful as they could be,” Dashdorj said.
She’s started parking her car in the back of her house.
“We have cameras everywhere in the front, in the back. We, you know, have kind of upped all of our security,” Dashdorj said.
Perera understands there are bigger problems than her car but wants more done.
“Maybe a light, maybe a camera, maybe a police presence to deter,” Perera said. “It’s just, it’s not fair to feel like I’m being abandoned like our block is being abandoned and it’s not important.”
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department released a statement:
Preventing Theft from Vehicles is a priority of MPD and it’s a priority for members of Fourth District where this incident occurred. We always seek video and images that could help locate suspects in all offenses and regularly disseminate images to the public to help our investigations.
Theft from Auto is down 8% year to date in the Fourth District and our detectives will continue to thoroughly investigate these offenses to locate and apprehend suspects.
Tom Lynch, Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist
