Thieves trashed more than 20 vehicles parked at Jakes Way early Thursday morning, alarming residents who woke to discover the vandalism.
“I literally just bought my car yesterday and woke up to go to work and found my window, broken along with all the cars around me,” Jakes Way resident, Stephanie Avila, told The Signal Thursday.
“I live in Canyon Country on Jakes Way – where all the apartments are – and last night over 20 cars including my own got broken into,” she said.
Avila, a single mother, had just purchased her brand new Chevy Spark the day before.
“I didn’t even get to have a full day with my car. It’s very sad to know that people are out here doing this just for fun,” she said.
“I had to take a whole day off work to fix my window.”
Avila said she filed a report with Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.
She wasn’t the first Jakes Way resident to report the rash of vehicle break-ins. “The officer said that it was a total of 20 cars this happened to,” she said.
“We did get reports of a number of vehicles broken into,” Lt. Bryan Aguilera said.
“People there woke and went out to their cars and found the break-ins,” he said, noting detectives suspect, of course, that thieves broke the windows of vehicles to steal contents found inside.
“We’d like to remind people to park in well-lit areas and to make sure there are no visible valuables in the car,” he said.
Aguilera said an effort would be made to step-up deputy night patrols of the Jakes Way area in light of the break-ins.
Jakes Way residents are left, meanwhile, to make repairs to their vehicles and hope the culprits are arrested.
“I would love to get this story out there, so we can catch this guy,” Avila said, adding deputies told her of a break-in every night recently but not “this many cars at one time.”
Jakes Way is an apartment complex on Sierra Highway at Jakes Way, south of Soledad Canyon Road and the Santa Clara River wash.
661-287-5527
on Twitter @jamesarthurholt
