Vandals hit tires, windows

GLENDALE — A spate of slashed tires, broken windows and keyed cars battered the city during the past two weeks, police records show.

A dozen tire slashings in northwest Glendale last week have contributed to the rash of vandalism, Glendale Sgt. Vahak Mardikian said.

Victims parked their cars on residential streets June 10 and awoke the following morning to discover the slashed tires. Damaged was estimated at between $150 and $600 per car, police said.

“It looks like a bunch of random acts,” Mardikian said. The tire slashings occurred at six different locations, including Graynold, Bruce and Monte Vista avenues, Idlewood Road, Dryden Street and Glenoaks Boulevard.

Victims told police they didn’t know why they had been targeted, he said.

Witnesses saw young adults slashing the car tires, but didn’t get any additional physical descriptions, Mardikian said.

The rash of tire slashings is unique, he said.

At least 27 tire slashings have been reported from January to June, said Jared Stevenson, a police spokesman.

But tire slashings were not the only vandalism offenses reported in the past two weeks.

Vandals have been scratching the paint off of cars, spray-painting vehicles and pouring acid on autos to remove the paint, Mardikian said.

Paint on two cars was scratched Saturday while parked on Cañada Boulevard, according to police reports. The same day, a Glendale man on Winchester Avenue reported that his Land Rover’s paint was scratched, possibly with a key.

A Glendale man reported Sunday that the paint on his two cars, a Toyota and Acura, were scratched. The vehicles were parked on Mountain Street in front of his home.

The offenses, Mardikian said, were likely personal attacks against the victims and not random.

“I think people are just more frustrated,” he said.

But most often, the victims say they don’t have any known disputes with others, he said.

The vandalism has also inflicted headaches on some business owners.

Some of them have looked into replacing shattered windows that were broken with rocks or BB gun pellets.

On Sunday, Elina Grigorian discovered her and her husband’s office window had been broken with a rock for the second time in two weeks.

Luckily, she said, she didn’t replace the first broken window; it would have cost her hundreds of dollars to replace both windows.

Grigorian moved into the Park Avenue office space five years ago and opened her business, Prowire Orthodontic Laboratory.

Manager Yolanda Vasquez went to work Tuesday morning at Fiesta Plaza Nutrition Products on Chevy Chase Drive and found the glass storefront window broken.

The window hadn’t yet shattered to pieces, but appeared to have been broken by a BB gun pellet, she said.

Vasquez estimated the window’s replacement at more than $300.

The store moved to its current location in January after having spent 10 years at a space in Adams Square, where she said it was never vandalized.

Vasquez said she believes young adults may be responsible for the broken window.

“They are all out because of summer,” she said. “They are going to do stupid things when they are together.”

In the past, vandals used sling shots to launch ball bearings into stores’ windows, Mardikian said.

The windows, he said, are likely being broken by thieves, who are looking to enter the businesses to steal.

Businesses or homes, whose windows were broken, are often investigated as attempted burglaries, Mardikian said.

“They break a window for a reason,” he said.

Anyone with details about the tire slashings may call the Glendale Police Department at (818) 548-2097, burglary and property Crimes unit at (818) 548-2097 or can anonymously call the Crime Stoppers Hotline at (818) 507-STOP