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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A student at The Ohio State University has now fallen victim to three vehicle break-ins during his first semester in Columbus.
Michael Vincent attended OSU at Mansfield near his hometown of Lexington, Ohio for his first two years of college.
He moved to Columbus with his girlfriend and lives with her at her uncle’s house in Olde Towne East to save money. Now that money is being spent on replacing broken windows.
“In Lexington you don’t really have to worry about that, you know. You leave your cars unlocked and just lock your house at night. It is a violating feeling, feeling that you don’t have, like you have to think about what everybody’s going to do,” Vincent said.
He noticed the mess as he got ready to leave for campus, a 10–20-minute drive from Olde Towne East depending on the traffic.
“I’m like what is what’s this all over the place,” Vincent said. “My windows smashed in. And just that stomach drop moment. It’s like, oh it’s happened again.”
That was the second break-in. The third break-in came during broad daylight on Miami Avenue around 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Vincent was in the back seat of his truck attempting to clean the glass and water from rain the night before and puddled on the floor and seats.
“Suddenly someone opens the front driver’s side door to my truck. And you know I think that it’s my girlfriend, so I just look to see who it is and I make contact with a man I’ve never seen before. Trying to get into my truck. I think he was just as startled to see I was in there. And he runs back,” Vincent said.
The person who attempted to steal his truck ran off and got back in a Jeep that also had a busted-out window and then took off. But the damage had been done.
“We just got packed up and left. I just didn’t want to be in Columbus after that,” said Vincent.
Vincent and his girlfriend drove the truck back to the Mansfield area while missing a window. A chilly drive but worth it to be home for Thanksgiving.
Josh Snyder-Hill is one of the relatives the two are living with. He’s been living in Columbus for more than 20 years, and 15 in Olde Towne East.
“If you had asked me a day ago if I felt safe in this neighborhood, I would’ve said yea. Somebody rifling through our cars. This scares me,” Snyder-Hill said. “The fact it happened in broad daylight adds to the alarm… I know they got away and nobody got hurt, but that’s scary that they’re just out there doing that.”
The rash of break-ins Tuesday morning happened early in the morning and were caught on surveillance camera at the Snyder-Hill household. A car moves slowly down the street, stopping directly next to parked vehicles. They don’t check to see if the doors are open, the flash a light inside and then boom, the window gets smashed.
“It’s not one smash and grab. It’s just they’re going down the street breaking as many as they can to see what they can get,” Snyder-Hill said.
This was not the first time their cameras have captured a crime in the area.
“Weirdly enough, almost a year ago exactly, there was a moment where Kia’s were getting stolen, quite a few of them. And behind our house actually there were at one point like six Kia’s that had been parked that had been stolen by some kids in the neighborhood,” Snyder-Hill explained.
They called CPD on several occasions when there were several suspected stolen vehicles parked in the alleyway.
“One time we called them when the kids that were doing it were actually back there. And the cops came, it looked like maybe they were going to confront them. The kids sped off and the cops just kind of followed them. And then called us and asked us if we got the license plate for that car,” said Snyder-Hill.
He said when the police came, the kids sped off.
“And when the police followed up with us they said well they’re not allowed to pursue,” Snyder-Hill said. “It’s obvious they’re getting a little bit, not a little bit, they’re getting a lot more brazen. They’re in the broad daylight doing things like this. What are we supposed to do?”
Vincent and Snyder-Hill want to see something change. But there is no easy answer.
“I’m just more disappointed that I don’t think I’m ever going to get back to the feeling of security that I had there,” said Vincent. “I just hope that getting this out there makes the place a safer place to be. I want the area to be patrolled more if that’s what needs to happen. Or, whatever needs to happen to make the people that live there, not have to live in fear.”
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