Broken Arrow Business Owner Frustrated At Repeated Car Break-Ins In His Lot

A Broken Arrow businessman said he is fed up with criminals who keep breaking into cars in his lot, and said he feels nothing is being done about it.

Wayne Scherado owns a transmission shop in Broken Arrow and sometimes, customers' cars are parked outside.

He said, four times recently, someone has broken into those cars—twice the cars belonged to his own daughters.

When Scherado got to work and saw his daughter's car window broken and glass all over her wedding dress on the seat inside, the molding torn, the panel pulled off, the dash ripped up—he had just had it.

"Oh, yesterday, I was so mad. I don't lose my temper much anymore - I did when I was younger - but I beat the top of that car yesterday - my daughter's car - I was so mad," Scherado said.

This is the fourth time it's happened. You can still see the glass on the ground outside, from the previous break-ins and his other daughter's car, which was also broken into, the dash torn up and the stereo taken.

"We've called the police department twice. They tell me I can't file a police report, because I don't own the vehicles," Scherado said.

The owners or customers don't file reports, because Scherado pays for all the damage and fixes the cars, so the customers no longer see a need.

He said he's also asked for increased patrols.

"I have asked on two different occasions, ‘Can you patrol my area,' and we work here multiple times late, but [have] never seen a patrol in the parking lot or behind or in the alley, at all," Scherado said.

So, now he's bought several high definition cameras that can shoot video up to 92 feet away in the dark, clear enough to get a tag number.

He said it's frustrating to feel he has no options, when he's the one who keeps getting hit and he's the one who keeps shelling out the money for repairs.

And the thieves do so much damage, to get so little reward.

"It's going to cost $500 in parts, and I'll do the labor and they got a $69 radio," Scherado said.

Broken Arrow Police said the owner of the car must file the report and they encourage those people to do so, even if they are not out the money for the repairs. Without a report, they don't know there's a problem.

They could only find one report of a car break-in from Wayne's business and no reports requesting additional patrols.

They said if Wayne will call again, they will do what they can to get by there between calls.