LOWER ALSACE TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Is it a troubling new trend or are these isolated incidents?
“It’s just disappointing,” said Charlie Simcik, who lives in Lower Alsace. “It changes sort of how you feel in your neighborhood.”
“In the early evening hours of Thursday October 16th, it appeared a group of teenagers that were on bikes threw a rock through a window in a residential area of Lower Alsace Township,” said Central Berks Police Det. Chris Mayer.
The rock went through the window, leaving a hole and shattered glass while the homeowner was right upstairs.
“I was actually putting my baby down to sleep,” said Simcik. “I was just holding her to get her to go down and I heard a noise.” He says after he got his daughter to sleep, he went downstairs.
“[I] Realized how cold and breezy it was and my dog was barking incessantly, he wouldn’t even stop,” Simcik said. “Normally he’s pretty well behaved, doesn’t really bark, so I thought, this is weird.”
He saw the glass on the floor and went to speak with his neighbor who shared video from her cameras.
“She sent me some still photos from her camera and it showed a couple kids on the street on bikes and then one kid on the property,” he explained.
On Monday, a Reading woman posted pictures and a video on social media showing a kid tossing a rock through her daughter’s bedroom window in the Centre Park Historic District.
Central Berks Regional Police warn this type of activity is dangerous.
“[If] you hear a crash or a bang or something like that, maybe people will jump to conclusions and say somebody’s trying to break in my house and the homeowner might take matters into their own hands,” he said.
The incidents are under investigation.