Black Tuesday Vandalism

Tuesday September 7th, 2021                            Most Recent Posts:
Charlottesville Virginia                                    Leaving Vermont, Headed South
                                          Inside and Back Outside the Bennington Museum
                                                                                  

On Tuesday evening, September 7th, only 4 days after I returned to Virginia, at approximately 9:30 pm Winnona was parked in her usual place in Charlottesville Virginia when two cars drove down the quiet side street and shot out the windows of two vehicles on her side of the road including 4 in Winnona.  It appears to have been BBs.  All the windows in this picture  were damaged.

As you can see there were multiple shots into the dining and living room windows.

A closer look shows the glass was completely shattered but as it is safety glass, it didn’t fall out in little shards like the driver’s roll up window did.

Here’s how it looked when I went in and discovered it the next morning.  I hadn’t heard the shots and a neighbor told me the next day that she’d been outside in her backyard when she heard the popping and walked around to the front in time to see two cars speeding away around the corner.

Initially the driver’s window looked like this but in a short time, it looked like the second picture as the pieces of glass fell out all over the street and the driver’s seat and floor.

A later view before the entire driver’s window fell out.  The triangular window also fell out all over the ground but the inside pane held.

The police were called.  They took a report but they haven’t done anything that I know of in the nearly 3 months since this happened.  Pictures of the cars did show up on the home cameras of people on another street nearby where they were also shooting at cars. 

My friends Mary and Penny helped me put black plastic secured with masking tape over the entire mess in order to keep out the rain. 

My insurance, Geico, wouldn’t do anything.  They don’t send adjusters on glass claims and none of the auto glass drive up and replace it people can do RVs.

It has been an absolute nightmare.  It took constant hounding and THREE WEEKS for Geico to even get the replacement windows approved for ORDERING.  First they sent me to Safe T Glass who sent me to Duncan Glass in Indiana.  I had to do all the phoning and arranging to get the windows order.  Geico was NO HELP at all.  They don’t send a claims agent out for glass claims and apparently don’t care a whit that this was more than the usual car window problem.  So I had to do everything.  I intend to look for other insurance so if you like yours and they’ve done a good job for you on a claim, PLEASE tell me who you have.

Shelli and Stephanie at Duncan Glass were as helpful as they could possibly be given the difficulty of dealing with Geico so I would absolutely recommend them.  At least with Duncan I always spoke to the same person.  I was calling Geico daily and harrassing them and always had to wait on hold forever and talk to a different person each time.  Of course that person had to hear the entire story, pull up the file, read the notes and say there was nothing they could do to speed up the process so I could be repaired by November 1 and leave for Florida to make my camping reservations on time.

I know, I know, supply chain problems but 3 weeks just to get them ordered??   I haven’t been in Virginia this late in the year for over 10 years.   Not a happy camper here

To date I have had to cancel 7 weeks of the very difficult to get Florida State Park Reservations and am still in Virginia where it is freezing, literally.

The windows finally came in yesterday nearly 14 weeks after the vandalism.  BUT the installer which the insurance company sent me to is 70 miles south and has a drive which is at nearly a 45 degree angle and Winnona bottomed out going in and did damage to the passenger rear and its compartment.  Of course he claims no responsibility and the insurance company says it’s my problem.  So now I have two claims in 3 months, neither of which were my fault and  which will of course cause my premium to soar. perhaps result in a cancellation of the insurance and seriously affect my ability to change insurance companies.

My out of pocket costs for this are approaching $1000 and it isn’t nearly over.

I had taken the RV to the recommended installer who was to do the two driver’s area windows earlier in the week.  But he informed me when I called to find out whether he was finished that yes he was but he couldn’t do the roll up window after all.  The insurance company now tells me that this window is no longer available and they know of no one who can replace it.  So what do I do now? 

To date, the only window that has been replaced is the triangular wing window  by the driver’s seat.  I put a piece of plexiglas over the roll up window so I could drive the RV to the installer.

I have requested that the two living area windows be resent to the RV repair I normally use when in Ashland Virginia, another 70 miles east,  whose quote had an hourly labor charge higher than Geico would pay which is why I went with their recommendation, but no longer. I do not trust him.  Problem is that my shop can’t get me in until mid to late January which means more cancellation fees and more cold weather.  Also they cannot fix the roll up window as they do not “create glass windows” they only install.

Damage to bin

I am VERY ANGRY that the perpetrators of this vandalism have no responsibility and will pay no penalty at all for everything I’ve had to go through as a result of their actions.  And angry at the police who are not finding them or controlling this sort of vandalism.   Charlottesville has always been a sweet quiet college town but it seems that ever since the infamous unite the right rally here in 2017, violence of many types is on the increase. 

It was always easier to leave Winnona in Charlottesville on this formerly safe and quiet little side street rather than take her out to the farm down the narrow curving mountain roads.  We have done this for the past 9 years but I have bought a 30 amp plug and box and am having electricity put out there so she will no longer be in what I’m sadly beginning to feel is a dangerous town.

If any of you have any suggestions/advice about how I might get this driver’s roll up window replaced please please let me know.  Made in 2004, Winnona is an “older” RV now but she still has a lot of life left in her and I don’t want this vandalism to be the end of RVing for me.