[ji99lypuff]

Ok so heres the deal, some asshole keeps smashing in my rear windshield! Twice this week and five times total in the span of several years. He just happens to be fixated on my car for some unknown reason. I do have security cameras in front of my house but sometimes i have to park further away from the house( nyc is tough to find parking) and i have not been able to catch him on any cameras. Now the crazy thing is that he does this to other cars as well but has been doing it to mine in particular this past week. I just fixed it and he smashed it again the next day. What can i do to catch him in the act because he obviously does it either in te early morning hours or in todays after 7am. This has royally pissed me off because calling the cops is basically useless. I called them for the first two and they were unable to catch anyone. There is another crazy twist in this whole fiasco which is i kind of have an idea of who it might be. Several reasons to believe it is this certain guy is that 1) i hang out late and when i come home in the early morning hours 2am or 3am i will see this "guy" on my block when he does not live on my block. 2) my neighbor, who also had his window smashed twice told me he once encoubtered a guy outside his house once late at night fiddling with tools and my neigjbor shouted hey what are you doing on my lawn with those tools and he said with a straight face " i use these tools to break into cars" and then he walked away casually as if that was normal. When i told him to describe to me this guy who said this, he fit the description to a tee! Bald white male in his late 40s and heavy set. He usually goes around on a bike in our neighborhood. I even have a rough idea where he lives because i was born and raised in this town and i have seen this guy around for the past 15 years here and there. The problem is that i have no visible evidence on record of him doing it but me and my neighbor put two and teo together and had an A-ha! moment when we figured it was probably this douche doing this. I also afraid if we decide to do somethibg he may come retaliate with something violent. I need some way to catch him on video doing this. Maybe someone knows of a good blackbox camera that can record stuff all night long and can be put inside Or outside the car? I am adding window insurance now and all that but it is annoying coming out of my house to find glass shattered all up in the car.

[zipphreak]

Move to a new hood.

[hellrotm]

Use one of those infrared trail cameras. Battery powered, motion activated. You can attached them to just about anything.

[PINeely]

Put a giant spring-loaded boxing glove behind your rear windshield so that when he breaks it it knocks him out. Paint ACME on the side for additional comedy.

[paradoxical3]

Aerosol pepper spray grenade taped under your bumper. Hookup a cheap battery powered glass break sensor to an arduino running off a lantern battery. Program the arduino to operate a lego mindstorm robot to fire the grenade when the glass break sensor goes off. GoPro to record it.

[Nkc]

Ever heard of paragraphs?

[Mike_L]

Originally Posted by Nkc

Ever heard of paragraphs?

A lot of people don't do paragraphs in the US. My uncle is a writer and he's the same way. When I type his writing, I have to make it into paragraphs to make it understandable.

[MYovichZ4]

Originally Posted by BlackJetE90

Use one of those infrared trail cameras. Battery powered, motion activated. You can attached them to just about anything.

Agreed - http://www.amazon.com/b?node=3413551

[rantarM3]

Get a large viscous dog and let it sleep in the car. Problem solved...

[yousefnjr]

1. Buy gun

2. Wait for asshole

[Vigilante375]

You could buy a camera that mounts inside your car and turns on when it detects motion.

But it sounds like this person needs a real good ass kicking or maybe the local Mafia could let him have a nice "chat" with the fish.

[ji99lypuff]

Thanks for the ideas! The infrared trail cameras are cheap enough so i may buy one or two to set up in the car and around some of the trees around the area. I agree this asshole needs an ass beating badly. Not to mention we got hit with some snow so it has been tough to get that crap fixed

[PINeely]

Seriously if this has been an ongoing problem with multiple victims is there nothing that the police can do to up patrols? There were a bunch of smash-and-grabs happening in my neighborhood not long ago, they put out one car on 24/7 patrol and they had the guy in like 2 nights.

[ji99lypuff]

You would think something would be done but nope! To tell you the truth i dont even want to deal with the police anymore. First two times it took them over 4 hours to get to my car and the precinct is 4 blocks away. And when i told them the info they took it all down but nothing has happened to the guy as far as i know. No patrols or extra surveillance was given to us.

[PINeely]

Honestly the police probably have a pretty good idea of who is doing this too (your questionable individual sounds like a good candidate) but they can't do anything without either catching him in the act or good evidence. It's still absurd that they won't give you all a patrol though. I like the trail cam idea. This may be an example of where the citizens have to do the real legwork, unfortunately.

[rubber_ducky]

what will it cost to rent a secure parking spot? At your current rate of windscreen replacement, that might be a cheaper solution.

[nicknaz]

Sucks to hear that OP. I feel your pain since I have had multiple incidents with cars in BK when visiting in-laws (GS-R integra stolen, mirrors smashed, bumper dings, etc)

Also, hide a camera in the car so you can get it from multiple angles.

[3002 tii]

Dash cam facing backwards, mounted on windshield

[fecurtis]

Get a gun.

Sleep in car with said gun.

[MAERD TEW]

Take off a couple of weeks from work. Don't sleep at night and catch the MFer.

[NickyC]

Originally Posted by fecurtis

Get a gun.

Sleep in car with said gun.

He lives in NY, they're too "enlightened" to have such crude devices there.

[ji99lypuff]

Hahaha the ridiculous answers are funny because those exact thoughts have come into my head more than once. I even thiught about camping outside and waiting to catch that fucker in this blistering cold. It would totally be worth it! I have foubd abother house with a camera near olace where the incident occurred so i may go over and ask them if i can take a look at their footage sometime this week. I was quoted 270 for replacement glass, not too bad. Last time i paid 320, im getting to know this auto glass shop well because of all my incidents.