Car burglars strike another Nashville neighborhood

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Another round of car break-ins happened on Sunday, this time in the Salemtown area where Metro Police said over a dozen cars were burglarized.

Police said the break-ins happened along Fifth Avenue North from Hume Street to Coffee Street.

Just three weeks ago about a half-mile from there, 50 cars were broken into at an apartment complex.

For the people whose cars sat on Fifth Avenue taped up, they said they’re dealing with the unexpected financial burdens from the repairs.

“I got a text from my friend Sarah whose car is parked across the street, also broken into, and she was like, ‘Oh my gosh some of the cars were broken into,’” Kathryn Degroft, whose care was broken into, said.

That was Degroft’s reality on Sunday. Her back window was broken into and ransacked, but she said nothing was taken.

“My insurance, I was on the phone with them today, and I do have to pay a deductible, but they’re covering most of it, but still kind of a hefty price out of pocket, which is so frustrating,” Degroft said.

Metro Police said 14 cars were burglarized but no valuables were taken.

“There was four cars just on this side of the street that was broken into. It was pretty hectic when I came out cause everyone was outside. People were brooming up the glass,” Degroft said. “It’s so frustrating because I am in grad school at Vanderbilt and now I can’t go to class cause I can’t drive there.”

Councilman Freddie O’Connell, who represents the area, said he is concerned about this trend and the potential connection to gun thefts from vehicles.

“Since guns and trunks and permitless carry have passed, we have just watched that number rise to staggering amounts so there’s no question people are looking in vehicles to see if they can get a gun for free basically and illegally,” O’Connell said.

Metro Police said its North Precinct officers started an initiative using officers to visit areas with a high amount of vehicle burglaries from 6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.

“I know when we moved here the landlord did tell us some incidents happened in this area of town,” Degroft said.

O’Connell said he hopes an upcoming community safety meeting will give answers on how neighbors with security cameras can help police combat this trend.

“We seem to get different responses from the department about how to submit footage, how it’s going to be used. We’ve got an upcoming community safety meeting that we’re trying to schedule that’s both about call times at the emergency communication center but also about response times and how the neighborhoods can be effective,” O’Connell said. “That’s something I’m looking forward to getting a clear answer. That would be something all the communities around here would love to have better guidance on if we have footage or things that we have that might help an investigation. How do we get that to police?”

Metro Police said it’s sending a detective to canvass the area for video surveillance but don’t have any available yet.

Police are encouraging people who see suspicious activity to give the department a call.

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