PELHAM PARKWAY, the Bronx (WABC) -- Police are searching for a suspect seen breaking into a parking garage in the Bronx before smashing the windows of over 20 vehicles in an attempt to steal the contents inside.
Surveillance video shows the thief first lift the garage door. Once he weasels his way in, he gets to work, subtly using a special tool to crack car windows before diving in head first.
"Some of them had two windows blown out and this is one of the cars," said co-op board president Peter Morello.
Shards of glass were left on the seat of Ousmane Doumbia's Jeep Grand Cherokee, but there was nothing to steal.
"Honestly don't know what he was thinking because you can see there's a camera everywhere, so why? I don't get it?" Doumbia said.
According to the video, the suspect was inside the garage for about 40 minutes. In that time, he had a field day, hitting at least 23 vehicles -- some with shattered glass still inside. All of this was done while most people were still asleep.
"He broke in at 4:40 a.m. Sunday morning," Morello said.
Car to car, the suspect rummaged through belongings, allegedly stealing some E-ZPass tags and sunglasses, but he didn't get away with much.
"It took him 23 cars to figure that out," xx said.
It happened on Thwaites Place inside of a private garage for co-op shareholders, who pay $120 a month not to park on the street.
"This is a new level of crime where they get into the building," Morello said. "You pay for a garage for a reason."
Aside from this incident, police had already been investigating a burglary pattern involving three other parking garages, also in the 49th Precinct area. They were all hit in January, by a suspect caught in surveillance images.
Burglaries in the Pelham Parkway area of the Bronx, have skyrocketed 41.7% this year.
Whether the Thwaites Place incident is part of the same pattern is under investigation, but there is a message to the suspect accused of ransacking that garage.
"Get a job. Use your brain in the appropriate way," Morello said.
"I just believe that he's not normal because anybody with all their sense would not do something like that," Doumbia said.
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