Milwaukee business seals 200 cars' smashed windows in two weeks: 'there's no pattern'

Nov 05, 2024

Metro Hand Car Wash & Detailing has been vacuuming glass, sealing windows for free since the smashing spree began

Metro Hand Car Wash & Detailing has been vacuuming glass, sealing windows for free since the smashing spree began

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Metro Hand Car Wash & Detailing has been vacuuming glass, sealing windows for free since the smashing spree began

Metro Hand Car Wash & Detailing used to clean a couple of broken-into cars every day. Now, the business is vacuuming glass and sealing windows for up to 20 cars since Milwaukee's window-smashing spree began.

"Over 200 in the last 12 days," said Mazen Muna, the car wash's owner. "I have one girl that's had a total of seven break-ins in the last 12 months that we've taken care of."

Muna has been offering the service for free to break-in victims. Milwaukee police data shows reports of these kinds of crimes have nearly tripled in the last year.

"You see these cars, they're ransacked. Are they taking anything?" WISN 12 News reporter Erica Finke asked.

"95% of the cars have nothing taken from them. It's just the breaking of the windows," Muna said. "There's no pattern. There's no specific car type. There's no specific anything. It's just windows that continue to be broken."

One of Muna's clients, Brennen Huebner, has had his truck windows smashed three times in two months. He woke up around 3 Wednesday morning, heard glass smashing outside near Cass and State streets and took matters into his own hands.

"I was like, 'What are you guys doing?' They all jumped into their vehicle and they, they looked like they were going to drive off," Huebner said. "And I was standing about right here looking at their plates, trying to get them. That's where they did a U-turn and charged at me. That's when I pulled out my pistol, and they veered off and kept going down."

Muna is hoping city leaders create a plan to better address the problem.

"Maybe allocates some funds or move some things around where there are more police presence, there's more patrol at night looking at things like this to hopefully divert the situation," Muna said.

Milwaukee police said in an email that "patrols have been increased in impacted areas of the districts."