Five cars parked in a row along Dolores Park — all with broken windows

Five cars parked in a row along Dolores Park all had broken windows on the morning of Friday, March 3, 2017. Five cars parked in a row along Dolores Park all had broken windows on the morning of Friday, March 3, 2017. Photo: Falzone Photo: Falzone Image 1 of / 33 Caption Close Five cars parked in a row along Dolores Park — all with broken windows 1 / 33 Back to Gallery

Five cars parked in a row along San Francisco's Dolores Park all had smashed windows on a recent morning in March.

A vandal likely broke into the cars in the middle of the night, searching through the glove boxes, center consoles, and the backseats in search of anything the cars' owners left behind that might be worth selling.

Shattered glass on the street beneath a broken car window is a common scene throughout San Francisco. And the sight on March 3, five cars in a row, all in need of window repairs that will cost $200-plus, is symbolic of the city's ongoing problem with car break-ins, especially in the Mission District.

Smash-and-grab car burglaries spiked 31 percent between 2014 and 2016, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, and the city took 25,899 reports of car break-ins in 2015, or more than 70 per day on average.

More recent car break-in data is limited. The San Francisco Police Department hasn't released a total number for 2016 breaks-ins, but SFPD spokesperson Officer Robert Rueca points to a recent report revealing 2,177 incidents in January 2016 and 2,062 in January 2017 — that's a 5 percent decrease between two isolated months.

"I totally understand the community still reeling from their cars getting broken into, but as far as citywide numbers, we're seeing that number go down, but of course that doesn't make neighbors feel any better when your car gets broken into," Rueca said. "We're recommending that people file reports online or at a district station. It's valuable information and the only way we know what's going on is when people are reporting incidents."

The Mission District reveals a different story. In January 2016, SFPD received 74 reports of vehicle burglaries and in January 2017 that number was 266, resulting in a 255 percent increase between these two months.

Those numbers come as no shock to Mission District resident Siamak Akhavan.

Akhavan is the developer and a resident of the Light House, a multi-unit building on Dolores Avenue, and said he's faced with cleaning broken auto glass from the sidewalk after 99 percent of evenings, usually due to multiple car windows being smashed.

"The historic boulevard's width and relative distance/sparsity of residences in the street make it a perfect serial break-in target," Akhavan said. "I wish the City would initiate better monitoring systems, like better patrolling, more protection of culprits, and the very least install better lighting and camera systems."

Emmy Clausing also lives in the neighborhood and is appalled at the rows of cars with splintered window glass along Dolores.

"Yes, this usually involves rows," Clausing said. "When a car that has been vandalized is still parked, the glove compartment is always wide open and contents strewn about. To me this is another sign of crime run amok; there is far more than can be managed. There is never a policeman in sight."

While SFPD says the number of car break-ins is on the wane, Ricky Villareal, manager of In & Out Auto Glass on Bayshore Boulevard, where car window repairs range from $160 to $250, has seen a steady rise in business. Five year's ago, Villareal's team was repairing on average 20 windows a day. In the summer of 2016, he said business took off and ever since he has averaged 35 a day.

"Now I don't see any downtime," Villareal said.

Something everyone can agree on is your chances of a break-in are decreased if you don't leave any valuables in the car.

An iPhone forgotten in the center console, a Patagonia jacket crumpled in the backseat, a pair of Ray Bans on the dash, and a backpack on the floor are all items that give opportunistic thieves reason to smash a window.

Dolores Heights resident Jason Lopezjones parks his cars on the street every night and has never had a window broken.

"Our cars are totally empty," Lpezjones said. "One can see through the windows that there is nothing at all inside. I do see car windows broken, and know it has happened to lots of people, but my car is on the street every single night, empty, and never a problem. Maybe that is the lesson people need to learn? Especially since the city seems unable to stop the problem."