SEATTLE – Seattle Police say more than 50 cars were broken into in under two hours Monday morning, just outside the University of Washington.
It happened all along Greek Row, near Northeast 47th and 17th Avenue East, leaving many students in a financial bind with a big mess to clean up.
Police are looking for two suspects who used what they believe was a bat to smash out the car windows.
“They smashed this entire window,” said Will Reverman, a UW freshman, showing FOX 13 Seattle the damage to his car.
When Reverman walked to his car at around noon on Monday, he found a disaster waiting for him.
“This one as well, both back windows,” he said.
Reverman was just one of many victims in the masisve car prowl early Monday. It happened while he was asleep.
“Once I realized every car had a plastic bag in its window, I realized how bad it was,” Reverman said.
Much of the damage was done to those who can least afford it.
“I’m already on a like a shoe string budget, and now I’m really cooked,” said Reverman.
“I see one-by-one-by-one windows broken,” said Enrique Pinero, a junior at UW.
Pinero was parked about a block away on 18th. His car was spared.
“I really quickly ran over to my car. I got lucky. I was fortunate,” said Pinero. “Even if you didn’t lose anything valuable, it’s just such a pain for stuff, to get that fixed and also just an invasion of privacy. It makes you feel a lot less secure in this area we all call home.”
“Crime on the Ave is nothing new, and it’s kind of shocking how often it goes unreported,” said Joe Bannecker, a junior at UW.
He’s hoping university officials and the Seattle Police Department do more to secure the area.
“We have lots of drug use that is completely ignored by the city and the University of Washington. People have been assaulted. People have been mugged. I’ve had things thrown at me,” said Bannecker.
Early Monday morning, Reverman’s fraternity house was also damaged.
“They threw a rock through that whole window,” said Reverman.
“I can’t believe it’s happening in a place like this, a campus like UW,” said Joel Pratt, a freshman at UW.
Fortunately, nobody was injured. The damaged window can be seen to the right of the photo below.
“There is always going to be people like that in society. I think we need to start funding the police again. Why are they allowed to go through 50 cars without being caught, and then the police come here an hour later?,” said Reverman.
Reverman said someone rummaged through his car after the windows were broken, but nothing was taken. FOX 13 Seattle did talk to a student who told us they had a wallet stolen, but they didn’t want to share their full identity.
Seattle Police say that the suspects may have been driving a black Mercedes.
FOX 13 Seattle crews reached out to SPD and the University of Washington for any further comment, and are waiting to hear back.
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