ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The ongoing spree of car break-ins continues to trouble neighborhoods across Rochester and surrounding suburbs including Brighton. 

Residents on Clarissa Street in the city’s Corn Hill neighborhood say about a dozen cars were broken into this weekend. Tyler Malek-Renfer, a victim of a car break-in on Sunday night, described the scene.

“I came out, to leave work in the middle of a snowstorm [saw my] windows shattered,” he said.

Malek-Renfer now faces increased insurance deductibles and transportation challenges. “Deductible will probably go up from that. Have to pay a little bit more. But otherwise, insurance will take care of it. I can’t drive myself now. I’ve got to get rides. Got to figure out a different way to get around,” he said.

The break-ins weren’t limited to Rochester. On Friday night, Brighton Police reported 16 vehicles broken into at several apartment complexes. That includes Rustic Village on Elmwood Avenue and Crittendon Way Apartments.

Keith Woodard of the Brighton Police Department noted, “Windows smashed, rummaged through, various items taken.”

When asked if the break-ins are connected, Woodard stated, “It’s, it’s hard to say exactly if they are connected. I’m sure that there’s definitely a connection. It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s some social media aspect to this as well. Just that we haven’t caught up with yet. I think that sometimes it’s just, ‘Let’s see if we can do it’. A game that’s played at the sake of these victims and vehicle owners.”

Police are continuing to investigate the car break-ins and are asking anyone with information or video to call 911.

Last week, another 15 cars had their windows smashed in two downtown parking lots, on East Avenue and Main Street. In the last week of January, dozens of cars had their windows smashed on University Avenue, East Avenue, Rowley Street in the Park Avenue neighborhood, and an apartment complex on Manor Parkway off South Avenue.

Two weeks before that, around 40 car windows were smashed on Oxford Street off East Avenue and several other city neighborhoods. Several more windows were smashed near Cobbs Hill Park days later. If your car is broken into, here’s some advice on how to report it, file an insurance claim, and why not to use duct tape to patch your window.

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