RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – On the morning of May 26, residents living between 20th street and 37th street in Church Hill woke up to find their car windows broken.
Nest video captured by one of the residents shows a civilian walking down the street and breaking windows with his bare hand as he walks by the vehicles. A few cars went untouched. Some residents had multiple cars on the street.
Courtland Bluford was awake with his wife at 5 a.m. feeding their infant, when they heard the loud pops outside.
“You go to sleep, and you wake back up, and people are looking at their cars. This might have been around 6 a.m. or 6:30 a.m., and you’re looking at people’s cars and you’re trying to figure out what is going on,” Bluford said. “I look outside and then I think to myself…is my car hit? There is no way!”
Not only did he have to fix his car window, he also had to pay for interior details to pick up the remainder of the glass. Bluford said the expenses started to add up.
“It did get a little bit pricey, so we did have to end up taking it to someone to detail the inside. We tried to get the insurance to cover the glass, but then it was a special order,” he said. “We did end up finding somebody to replace the glass, but KIA said that is going to take two weeks.”
With car window repairs costing between $300 and $750, some people had to decide between going on vacation for Memorial Day weekend or paying for a new window — especially if multiple cars they owned were affected.
One resident on P and 37th Street said she had lived there for decades and never seen anything like this. Another neighbor said he had just moved in over a year ago and was just talking to a friend about how safe the neighborhood is. Both commented on how they have kids playing in the street, enjoy neighborhood barbecues and — like today — love to stand outside and chat with their neighbors.
Like other residents, Bluford still has his car parked in the street due to a lack of options for alternate parking. However, he is concerned something like this will happen again.
“We would have to move. We are looking at buying a house, but we would have to move,” he said. “We could park it in the back but who is to say it wouldn’t happen in the back as well?”
Richmond Police Department First precinct are still investigating this incident. Anyone with information or any video footage is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 804-780-1000 or RPD at 804-646-5100.
