MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police are investigating after criminals smashed out vehicle windows at a Memphis firehouse overnight.
According to police, officers were called to Firehouse 23 in the 3400 block of Jackson overnight after someone smashed the windows of every car in the parking lot except one. Nothing was taken from any of the vehicles.
Firefighters told investigators they returned from a call at 3:30 a.m. and didn’t notice anything unusual. When they returned from a second fire call at 4:25 a.m. the criminals had struck.
Jim Curtis owns Jackson Tire and Alignment which is two doors down from fire station 23. He said the crime is out of control.
“There’s so many break-ins in the City. So many homicides. It’s just terrible the things going on in 20-20,” Curtis said. ““We’ve been here nearly 50 years and it’s been many, many years since we’ve had any car break-ins or actual physical break-ins of the shop here.”
But in addition to station 22, two other locations were hit overnight, and the damage was worse.
On Southern Avenue at Loomis Armored Car, six vehicles were broken into with a variety of valuables taken and thieves stole one employees car.
In Whitehaven at Methodist Healthcare South Hospital, 20 employees reported the windows busted out on their vehicles.
There are security cameras at both Methodist South and Loomis, and police are reviewing the video.
They don’t believe the recent rash of thefts and vandalism is the work of just one group.
“What we’re seeing is a number of different groups of people that go out and do this and it may not be just one specific group. it may be several at one time,” Col. Darrell Sheffield, Memphis Police, said.
A source told WREG’s Melissa Moon that over 100 vehicles were broken into overnight across the city of Memphis. An exact number has not been released.
Our crews were unable to tell how many vehicles were damaged, but was told by one employee that the thieves stole a personal car, smashed windows of other vehicles and stole items that were stored inside.
