CINCINNATI -- Christine Wilson stepped outside Wednesday morning to discover her street sparkling with broken glass.
Someone had methodically knocked the windows out of every car on her side of North Argyle Place, then followed the curve of the road to do the same to neighbors on South Argyle Place and six other streets in Northside and College Hill.
"They absolutely didn't want to steal anything," Wilson said. "This was clearly just for vandalism's sake."
Capt. Doug Wiesman said the vandals, who remained at large Wednesday evening, appeared to have used a bat or pole to hit about 50 cars before crashing their own near the intersection of Bruce and Kirby streets and fleeing on foot.
The car they wrecked had been stolen from a home in Lower Price Hill, he added. Detectives from that area were working with his district to learn more about the joyriding crime spree.
"It was a little bit of a frenzy here this morning," Wiesman said, adding police believed the suspects were in their late teens or early 20s.
Victims such as Wilson, who scuttled her Wednesday plans to focus on sweeping up broken glass, calling her insurance company and finding new rides to school for her children, said they were stunned to see such large-scale vandalism in their community.
"There's just no reason or rhyme to it at all," neighbor Rich Childers said.
Wiesman said officers hoped they would be able to learn more about the vandals from video recorded on neighbors' home security systems.
Anyone with information about the incident should call Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.
