Baltimore City police have received reports of windows smashed out on 12 cars and a restaurant in the Canton area overnight. While the actual numbers are far less than what circulated online Wednesday morning through community groups online and on social media, authorities call the case troubling and a widespread crime of opportunity. The window of the restaurant was busted just after 4 a.m. and was replaced by lunch time. Many other victims weren't so lucky.

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Baltimore City police received reports of windows smashed overnight on 12 cars and a restaurant in the Canton area.While the actual numbers are far less than those that circulated online Wednesday morning through community groups online and on social media, authorities called the cases troubling and a widespread crime of opportunity.The window of the restaurant was busted just after 4 a.m. Wednesday and was replaced by lunchtime. Many other victims weren't so lucky."I walked out with my hands full of stuff this morning to get in my car and drive to work," said K'Ronn Cranford, who discovered a broken-out window on his Jeep, which was parked on Dillon Street."Every once in awhile, you have a crime of opportunity. Somebody breaks into a car, they steal items on the street. I'd say this is extremely uncommon because of the volume of cars," Cranford said. "None of us had items out. Nothing was stolen.""Right now, we have about 13 police reports that have been generated. These are members of the community who woke up this morning, came out to their vehicles and saw damage to the window. As far as what was used to damage these windows, we're really not sure right now," Baltimore police Detective Jeremy Silbert said.Police said there was no clear trail of destruction. Instead, the culprits hit clusters of cars in fits and starts across the eastern and southeastern police districts, from Canton to Greektown."If you park here on the street, you never know what's going to happen," said James Fotinos, whose car was vandalized in front of his house. "(I've lived) here for 45 years, you know? I built my house. I spent a lot of money. But I'm not happy lately, because all this is happening."Police said they have increased patrols in the targeted areas."We are going to be proactive about this. We are increasing patrols in these areas, and even as recent as a couple minutes ago, I found out (there will be) a foot officer that's going to be walking in those areas," Silbert said.They don't yet know whether the cases are connected.Get the WBAL-TV News App