INDIANAPOLIS — A south side homeowner captured vandals who smashed a car windshield on surveillance cameras, and now they're working to identify the suspects as similar acts are happening in the area and have not been documented with video.
The video shows five young men around 11:45 p.m. walking in the alley behind the 2100 Block of South Delaware. One stops, climbs on the hood of a white car, and jumps on the windshield. It shatters.
Minister Russ Smith's surveillance camera is motion activated and mounted on his garage. Minister Smith noticed the vandalism of his wife's company car the next day and shared the video on the Neighbors by Ring Crimewatch site.
"I don't know those people. I don't know why they are doing it," 20-year-old James Young, who lives down the street, said. "I don't know why they are acting out and smashing people's windshields; it's wrong, and they shouldn't do it."
Smith is a Disciples of Christ Minister. He is a part of a video ministry that is seen in 220 countries around the world and wants whoever smashed the windshield to pay for another one.
"I'd prefer to have them learn the consequences of their actions by having to restore the property that they destroyed," Minister Smith said. " Jail time, in my mind, is not a good thing. Usually, what it does is take small criminals and make them into bigger criminals. I'd much rather see they do something to restore the property."
The windshield of Smith's neighbor's car was vandalized that same night, as well. It has since been repaired.
"This is not just fun. This is not good fun," Young said. "Somebody's got to pay for all this stuff. If they want some entertainment, there are plenty of other good ways to do it."
Smith has not filed a police report yet; he is waiting for his wife to get back in town.
He hopes whoever did it, self-reports. And if they are planning on other criminal acts, the camera is watching.
If you have any information about the young men in the video (in the media player above), you are asked to call the police.
