‘Tis Season for Thieves to Smash Car Windows as Glass Shops Thrive
During the holiday shopping season, leave Christmas gifts unattended in the back seat of your car, and, Pete Newberger says, you’re bound to receive at least two unexpected visitors.
“A thief and me,” says Newberger, district manager for five U.S. Auto Glass Centers in San Diego County.
During the Christmas months, thieves and vandals are out in force “busting windows, nabbing Christmas gifts, clothing and purses” left inside cars, Newberger said. The result: repair work on auto windows “just skyrockets” for Newberger and the dozens of other San Diego auto-glass shops.
Work on side and back windows--thieves’ main points of entry--accounts for more than 60% of the 150 repairs conducted daily by U.S. Auto Glass’ five county service centers during the holiday shopping season, Newberger said. This time of year, his fleet of 20 radio-dispatched service trucks is kept busy answering the distressed calls of windowless car owners throughout the county.
But the holiday season isn’t the only time of the year that proves lucrative. An escalating crime rate has fed repair shops’ growth year-round. Moreover, the rising number of vehicles traveling San Diego’s roads as a result of the county’s booming population have resulted in more accidents and stone-chipped windows and thus more business for auto-glass shops.
San Diego has about 100 auto-glass repair shops, but Newberger says there is plenty of business to keep nearly everybody happy.
In fact, Newberger says, the combined revenue of San Diego’s five U.S. Auto Glass service centers has grown at a compounded annual rate of 20% over the last two years and should exceed $4 million in 1989. In addition to the San Diego service centers, U.S. Auto Glass, a subsidiary of closely held, Chicago-based Globe Glass and Mirror Comp., operates 12 other Southern California outlets.
“The No. 1 reason for our growth is more people moving into the county, which means there are more vehicles out on the road,” Newberger said. “That means more accidents, more stone bruises.”
Besides replacing shattered windows, most service centers repair “stone bruises,” which occur when flying debris, including pebbles kicked up by trucks, strike the windshield. Stone bruises are repaired by filling the crack with a polymer, which makes the window “structurally as good as new,” Newberger said.
He added: “And, where ever you see population growth, vandalism is going to follow suit. The bigger the city, the higher the crime rate.”
Crime statistics compiled by the San Diego Police Department supports Newberger’s claim.
Although such statistics do not specifically track the number of car windows broken by thieves or vandals, police records do monitor the number of “car prowls”--which include any type of theft from a vehicle, either through forced (breaking windows or locks) or unforced entry (unlocked door). Car prowls also include theft of car batteries and tires, said Donna Guevara, a spokeswoman for the department’s crime analysis unit.
From January to November of this year, more than 27,475 car prowls were recorded by San Diego police, up 10% from 24,925 posted during the same period last year. “With the number of car prowls increasing each year, it’s reasonable to assume that window break-ins are increasing as well,” Guevara said.
Insurance companies have noticed the trend as well.
Theresa Bedoy, an Allstate Insurance spokeswoman, says that in recent years her company has received an increasing number of glass claims from various causes, including accidents, theft and vandalism for the Southern California region. Through the first 10 months of the year, Allstate alone has processed 9,345 glass claims for its Southern California policy holders.
“And that’s not including November and December, which are typically our high months,” Bedoy said. “Our claims people say there is a definite increase in those months because of an increase in windshield damage due to sand storms and vandals striking during the holiday season.”
Paying for new windows during the holiday shopping season could mean fewer presents under the Christmas tree.
The following suggested list prices were published in the National Auto Glass Specifications (NAGS), a list that auto-glass repair companies use to help set prices: a windshield for a Mercedes 190 costs $484.70, an Oldsmobile Cutlass windshield costs $249.25 and a windshield for a Ford Ranger costs $255.25. Front door windows cost: $165.40 for the Mercedes, $113.35 for the Oldsmobile and $190.45 for the Ford.
But auto-glass repairers say such prices vary greatly from shop to shop because most offer discounts of 20% to 55% and have different arrangements with various insurance companies. Volume of business and availability also significantly affect the actual price consumers pay for new windows.
Tom A. Gapen, general manager of San Diego-based All Star Glass, says he has noticed a rise in business during the holiday season as well. But, Gapen adds, the boost isn’t always because of vandalism.
“Lots of people, say those who get their windows broken earlier in the year, will hold off getting it fixed during the holidays because they rather spend their money on Christmas gifts,” Gapen said. “But, as soon as the weather gets bad, when it starts raining, those plans get altered and they start coming into our shop.”
In addition to its San Diego service center and corporate headquarters, All Star Glass operates four outlets in the county, in Chula Vista, El Cajon, Escondido and Oceanside. Since All Star Glass opened in July 1978 with two service centers, it has added eight outlets, including three in Los Angeles and two in Orange County.
“Kids hitting baseballs through windshields, tourists getting their cars broken into at the Zoo or Sea World, vandalism . . . we’re pretty busy year-round,” Gapen said.
