MERIDEN, Conn. — Early Thursday morning, around 4 a.m., Meriden Police said they got more than 40 criminal mischief complaints on the east side of the city. A group of suspects went around to parked cars and smashed the windows. In some cases, police said they stole things inside.
In a post on Facebook, police wrote, "It appears as if the person or persons responsible were merely intent upon causing the damage."
One neighborhood in particular, the apartments at Yale Acres, was hit the hardest.
FOX61 obtained surveillance video from one of the neighbor's homes, showing a minimum of three suspects on foot, walking around with flashlights, and smashing the windows of cars. The alarms could be heard throughout the street. When they were done, a car sped by to pick them up.
"One of the neighbors came knocking on my door and ringing the doorbell to let me know what had happened," said one neighbor on Elizabeth Rd., who did not want to reveal her identity for safety reasons. She was woken up at 5 a.m. since she was one of the 40-plus victims who had been targeted overnight.
Both of her windows need to be replaced, and the quote from one company comes out to $700. It's money she said she doesn't have.
"It’s scary, I'm upset, I'm mad. Because now, I have to come like out of pocket," she said.
She also had to call out of work, and keep the kids at home because she couldn't bring them to daycare with glass all over their car seats in the back.
“People don’t realize how hard you have to work in order to have a roof over your head," she said.
Another nearby neighbor, Fatima Brito, said the suspects rummaged through her things when they smashed her car window. They left a wallet and more sprawled out on the ground.
"I feel bad, because no one wants to lose their things or have their car damaged or worse. Because it's not just a broken window, what if someone goes out something worse could happen. If a neighbor saw them and they had a weapon to defend themselves, then something worse could happen, death," Brito said.
The neighbors spent all day searching for repair companies, hoping to fix the mess and get back to work.
But they're unsure how they feel about the overall safety of the area now.
"Not safe anymore to be honest. Not safe at all. I was thinking that even I should consider to move. Because if it continues to happen it could be worse, and I don’t want that, I got kids," the woman who didn't want to reveal her identity said.
Police said when they were receiving the calls in the middle of the night, as they were responding to one area, they'd get another call for the same thing in a nearby neighborhood. Police said they conducted a thorough search, which came up empty.
In the meantime, The Meriden Police Department is asking people to contact them if they see anything out of the ordinary, remain vigilant, and watch out for their neighbors.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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