Cars vandalized at Lynnwood park-and-ride

By GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News

LYNNWOOD, Wash. - Imagine getting off the bus after a long shift at work over the holiday weekend only to find your car windows smashed out. That's what is happening to nearly a couple dozen people at a Lynnwood park-and-ride.

The normally packed lot at the Ash Way Park-and-Ride was nearly empty over the holiday weekend. But there were enough cars to interest some vandals who seemed more interested in causing damage than ripping people off.

The calls started coming in about 6:00 a.m. Monday from park-and-ride users who returned to very little left of the car windows.

"I'm just trying to get home without getting injured by all this glass," said Christine Booth, park-and-ride commuter.

Booth is a nurse who parked at the Ash Way Park-and-Ride Sunday night. She is a regular commuter who thinks having one window smashed out to get to her valuables but three smashed out for no reason is just hard to understand.

"I mean, why would they not take anything?" she said. "I have stuff here that's worth quite a bit of money. And they didn't take any of it."

"We heard that about 20 vehicles were broken into," said Tom Pearce, Community Transit spokesman.

Community Transit officials who should be celebrating their largest ridership ever in July with over a million passengers are not happy to find their park and ride filled with glass, strewn personal belongings and having to reassure some angry customers.

"Crime in our park and rides has been down significantly over the last several years and that is due a large part due to our work the Snohomish County Sheriffs," said Pearce.

The Snohomish County Sheriff's Department has some good evidence to view. Whoever decided to trash the cars must not have looked up or they would have seen one of dozens of surveillance cameras spraying every nook and cranny of the parking lot.

And solving this crime just might clear up another recent one at another park and ride. Just up the road in Mukilteo, someone pulled off the same kind of crime in the Sounder Park-and-Ride, causing lots of damage but not taking much.

There were some items stolen. Deputies aren't saying much, but that will just add to the list of crimes against the people who did this. It's just a matter of time until deputies find them on the surveillance tapes and put their pictures on the air.