What happened over the weekend in Island Lakes and Sage Creek is considered to be a random crime, but maybe a sign of the general rise of crime in the city.
19 different vehicles were damaged in southeast Winnipeg, with broken windows for no visible reason.Local neighborhoods had never seen such violence in this area and residents are concerned about their property and personal safety as well.
People woke up in the morning to find their cars with smashed windows, had to deal with it in a hurry, so now you can see a lot of cars with garbage bags taped over windows and piles of glass pieces on the road next to it.Such vandalism could be an anger act of a group of teenagers or one individual, but no information as of now about the motive or a reason, why this area was targeted.
One of the residents, Gerry Comte shared about how he and his neighbors used to leave the doors and the cars open, without any worries for safety. But apparently, after past weekend everything had changed. “Now we gotta keep everything locked,” he said. Many of his neighbors were hit and they are waiting for police to share some information on who could be responsible and what possible reason could be for such a crime spree. As per Winnipeg police: they don’t have information on that matter, also no suspects detained as of Monday morning.
Winnipeg police stated that this type of crime isn’t just limited to one place in the city it could hit other areas and neighborhoods and they recommend to prepare and do what residents can to protect themselves, their families and of course, their property. Try and set up your parking area with additional light, in most cases vandals will avoid well lit open spaces to not be seen or noticed by a passer-by, also think about installing a couple of outdoor security cameras. Police officers say, it helps with investigation and suspects identification if there are cameras in the area, also in many cases, criminal just leave as they see cameras on buildings or posts around to avoid being filmed and arrested later, so cameras really help to protect and even prevent the crime in your house, garage or a parking area. And many of Island Lakes and Sage Creek resident already started on improving their houses and vehicles security mostly by installing two or more security cameras outside of the house as well as adding bright lights, some of which are motion activated or even kept on all the time at a dark time of the day.
Police urge all Winnipeg city residents to provide any information available on 19 vehicles damaged or any possible suspect identity.