Philadelphia police are searching for a group of people captured on camera smashing and vandalizing cars near Temple University in North Philadelphia.
Several people were seen jumping on cars parked along Oxford Street and breaking windshields from 15th to Broad streets around 8:30 p.m. on March 29, 2024, police said.
“About 20 kids came up and started yelling and hopped on a car, and more showed up and started hopping on more cars,” Jack Onzik, who witnessed the incident, said.
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Investigators released video on Monday in the hopes that the public will help them identify the people seen jumping on the cars' hoods and windshields.
In the video you can see the people stomping on the windshields of the cars until they crack and shatter.
“They actually went right through her windshield," Chloe Getz, a Temple senior whose friend’s car was targeted, said. "She actually saw it through video, someone sent it to her, and oh my god, the pit that was in her stomach after that was insane."
Students and people who live in the area said this wasn’t the first time something like this has happened.
“No one has a car down here for obvious reasons, for that reason,” Onzik said. “I don’t need it to get stolen or vandalized.”
In the days around this incident, there were other instances of teens causing troubles during large meetups around Broad and Cecil B. Moore streets. Police arrested several juveniles in one incident and two others in another gathering where shots were fired.
“Then the last time they had it, the flash mob, they were shooting and they were smashing car windows,” Delores Johnson who lives in North Philly said.
Police are asking if anyone seen or knows any of the suspects to contact them or submit an anonymous tip.
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