"Chiseled around the windows:" Thieves target several neighborhoods in vehicle break-in spree



MILWAUKEE -- Several different areas hit, many with the same damage. Thieves hit many Milwaukee neighborhoods this week, breaking car windows, rifling through vehicles and taking any property they could find.

Shards of shattered glass are getting vacuumed out of Shana Koch's car, after criminals sucked away her sense of security.



"Actually, I'm quite paranoid," said Koch.

Shana Koch



Feeling uneasy after her car was broken into while she and her mother were sleeping and waking up to car alarms blaring, the startled pair came outside to see a smashed window.

"We noticed her window was broken. We noticed they had left a glove on top of her car and a phone charger sitting by the back tire of her vehicle. They also damaged my other daughter's car behind it. They chiseled all around the windows of the vehicle, broke the lock. There was a red brick laying in the car, they used the red brick to hit the window of it," said Sharon Koch, Shana's mother.



Milwaukee police say four vehicles in the area of 98th and Lisbon were broken into and several dozen other cars had their windows smashed in the Third Ward -- and several south side neighborhoods. Thieves stole personal items left in cars.

In such quiet unsuspecting neighborhoods, Koch says the crimes now keep her on edge for many reasons.

"My fear is you don't know if these kids have weapons on them so if you come out and catch them you don't know if they are going to shoot or what they are going to do," said Sharon.



If caught, Koch knows what she wants the judge to do.

"Serve some time in 'juvy' or whatever and I think the parents should be accountable for it," said Sharon.

The victims are now left to pay out of their own pockets for the repairs as police continue to investigate and look for suspects. They're also trying to determine if the same suspects are responsible for the different break-ins.

vehicle break-ins