CINCINNATI — The number of high-volume vehicle break-ins and vandalism throughout Cincinnati is on the rise in 2023, and there are certain parts of town that it's happening more often in, according to data from Cincy Insights.
According to Cincy Insights data, there have been 37 criminal damaging case clusters with five or more victims impacted in Cincinnati in 2023 so far. In 2022, there were only 15 instances at this time of the year.
A vast majority of the vandalism or break-ins that have occurred in 2023 took place in parking lots or with vehicles parked on the street.
The instance with the highest amount of victims took place on July 7 in the CUF neighborhood, which is comprised of Clifton Heights, University Heights and Fairview. Along the 2900 block of Marshall Avenue in a parking lot, 28 different people were affected by some sort of vandalism.
After the CUF incident, the second highest victim count was from July 6 in College Hill where 18 people experienced criminal damaging along Hamilton Avenue.
Other than high victim counts, there are two areas in Cincinnati that see the highest volume of criminal damaging: Surrounding the University of Cincinnati and the west side.
Around UC, there have been nine different instances where at least five different people experienced some type of criminal damaging, whether that be a cracked windshield, broken window or slash tires, among others.
Neighborhoods west of I-74 also have seen multiple break-ins and vandalism.
Millvale has one instance where six people were affected; South Fairmount has one instance with five victims; East Price Hill has two instances with a total of 22 victims; West Price Hill has one instance with nine victims; and, lastly, Westwood has seen four instances with a total of 33 victims.
“The west side has been really heavy the past couple of weeks in door glasses,” Chad Smithson, who works with Glass America, previously told WCPO. “It’s a pain in everybody's butt and a pain in their pocket.”
Jennifer Egbo's brother was one of the people who had their car damaged in Price Hill recently.
"We just saw like glass everywhere on the lot," Egbo said.
In a handful of these break-ins, nothing has been stolen from the vehicles.
Outside of Cincinnati itself, Colerain Township also recently saw a string of break-ins that left roughly 50 cars damaged.
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