Car Vandalism Turns Out to Be Work of Very Small-Time Gang

Police went to great lengths Sunday to investigate a report of vandalism of a car belonging to residents in the 2400 block of North 96th Street after a woman reported someone had smashed in the sunroof on her husband’s Volvo V70 station wagon overnight.

There was a lot more damage than that. The responding officer determined that someone had walked up the hood of the car and jumped on the sunroof until it gave way, in the process badly scratching the hood and a quarter panel, and cracking the windshield. The total damage was estimated at $2,500.

The vandal or vandals also had apparently spat numerous times on the car, so two detectives were called to collect DNA evidence and take photos of footprints on the car, which they described as small and closely spaced.

It looked like a case of a personal vendetta. The woman said that she could think of no one who had a reason to spite her husband or her two children, who are barely of school age.

She told officers, however, that she is a Wauwatosa elementary school teacher and had been having a lot of trouble with a parent who had been sending her nasty e-mails. She declined to name the parent until after discussing the matter with the superintendent, but said the woman did know where she lives.

A couple of hours after the reporting officer left, though, the woman called back to say that the case had been solved. The officer went back to the home, where the woman told him that after he had left, her 4- and 6-year-old daughters started to cry and told her that they had been playing on top of their dad’s car and broke the window.

The officer checked the 6-year-old’s sandal and found that it matched the footprints on the car. The woman said her girls hadn’t said anything earlier because they were afraid the officer would arrest them. The officer spoke to the girls about the incident, but left it to their mother to mete out punishment for the crime.