CINCINNATI — Alycesha Brown said a police officer woke her at her Terrace Woods apartment around 8:00 a.m. Saturday with news that her car had been involved in a crash with two cars in nearby Baltimore Ave.
The now totaled car, she said, had been stolen.
"I won't be able to drive, and I've got two kids," she said, "and it's a lot."
A few hours after Brown's car was stolen, her neighbor Shownta Mosley woke to a similar situation.
"I look over at my window and it was busted out," Mosley said, "so I come running down the steps like what happened?"
Not only was her car window broken, but someone had destroyed the dashboard and ripped out out the car's ignition.
The burglars had apparently left a screwdriver in her car before running away.
"This is my only form of transportation, and I work hard for mine," Mosley said, "and I have to get my son back and forth to school. So, I'm upset. I'm real upset, and I hope they catch them."
A third neighbor said her car was broken into roughly three weeks ago pointing to a larger problem in Westwood.
The region led Cincinnati in thefts from a vehicle in 2022 with 260 reported incidents, and so far in 2023 there have been an additional 82 reported incidents in Westwood.
RELATED: New data shows car break-ins continue to increase in Cincinnati
"I've only been here three months now, and this is what's going on over here? I don't understand it," Mosley said. "They need to have more police officers patrol this area."
As Mosley watched officers pull finger prints off of her car, she hoped police would catch the culprits so they don't leave anyone like her stranded.
"I will be in court that day to make sure they get prosecuted," she said.
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