{"id":146510,"date":"2026-03-24T01:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T01:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146510\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T01:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T01:29:10","slug":"hammer-slammer-is-hellertown-man-police-say-saucon-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146510\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Hammer Slammer’ is Hellertown Man, Police Say \u2013 Saucon Source"},"content":{"rendered":"

A vehicle vandal who became known as the \u201cHammer Slammer\u201d for his preferred method of smashing windshields is a Hellertown borough man who is now charged with felony and misdemeanor criminal mischief, Bethlehem Police said Monday.<\/p>\n

In announcing the arrest of Grant M. Chase, 37, police said he \u201cappeared to deliberately target areas with limited lighting and no City camera coverage\u201d in the \u201csoutheastern part of the South Side.\u201d Police said Chase has been tied to incidents that occurred between Dec. 3, 2025 and March 22, 2026 on E. 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th streets, as well as in surrounding areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn total, approximately 100 similar cases of vandalism have been reported throughout the region\u201d since the late summer of 2025, a news release shared on the department\u2019s Facebook page said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since last summer, Hellertown and Lower Saucon Police have investigated a number of incidents involving smashed car windshields<\/a>, and the news release noted that partner agencies including borough police, Lower Saucon Township Police and the Lehigh University Police Department are involved in the investigation.<\/p>\n

Bethlehem Police said their investigation was initially complicated by \u201ca lack of clear residential surveillance footage, limited witness information and delayed reporting by victims who often did not immediately discover the damage to their vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, however, surveillance footage was obtained, which police said shows Chase \u201cwalking through neighborhoods during overnight hours and striking vehicle windshields with what is believed to be a hammer.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a search warrant was executed at Chase\u2019s home last week, police said additional evidence was obtained and \u201cofficers subsequently conducted surveillance operations to monitor the suspect\u2019s activity and movements.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the night of Saturday, March 21, police said Chase is suspected of causing approximately $8,000 in damage to a total of eight vehicles. Estimates for the damage to all of the vehicles police believe he struck run into the \u201ctens of thousands of dollars,\u201d the release noted.<\/p>\n

Following an arraignment before Northampton County District Judge Nicholas Englesson in Bethlehem Monday, Chase was committed to the county prison in lieu of $50,000 straight bail.<\/p>\n

A preliminary hearing before Englesson is scheduled for Tuesday, April 7 at 10:30 a.m., according to the docket filed in the case.<\/p>\n

The docket did not list an attorney for Chase.<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using information provided by the Bethlehem Police Department and Northampton County court records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A vehicle vandal who became known as the \u201cHammer Slammer\u201d for his preferred method of smashing windshields is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[1646,153,155,154,2593,19359,66809,15652,66810,204,434,206,709,6774],"class_list":["post-146510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-arrest","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-cars","tag-charged","tag-grant-chase","tag-hammer","tag-hammer-slammer","tag-hellertown","tag-northampton-county","tag-police","tag-vandalism","tag-vehicles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}