Wing mirrors "karate kicked down the road", cars keyed and tyres slashed - it's no wonder people living in one part of Swansea feel afraid to park their vehicles outside their own homes.
Locals living in Uplands say the problem has been going on for years but has got worse in recent months and are urging police to do more to tackle it.
One car owner living on Mirador Crescent recently woke up to find a huge key scratch on her new car - causing more than £400 worth of damage.
She fumed: "The scratch is the whole length of the driver side and bonnet. We only got the car seven months ago, and the quote we got for the scratch repair (not including the light casing change), is £400 plus.
"I'm worried that if I have it repaired, it will happen again. Every time I get home from work I get anxious about where to park the car and if I will get targeted again. It's a very sad and frustrating situation."
The same has also happened to fellow Uplands resident Caitlin Evans, 23.
She said: "She said: "Me and my partner had been out for food with friends on the Monday night and drove separately. Walking back to our cars we noticed both had been scratched all the way along the side, but we thought it must've happened outside the pub that evening because we live in a quiet area.
"The next morning, I saw a Facebook post about other cars in the area being scratched so knew it must have happened on our road."
Jayne Keely, who owns Rainbow Clothing on Uplands Crescent, has also witnessed the spate of car crime over the past few months first-hand.
She said: "Not long ago, I witnessed somebody out at five in the morning with a torch, flicking car door handles to see if they were open. I shouted out to him when I saw him trying my neighbour's car, and I reported it to the police.
"Two cars were also recently broken into on the street I live on, one of which was stolen. It was found a few days later, thankfully, and it was undamaged.
Read more: Car destroyed and others damaged by fire as vehicle crime wave continues in Swansea communities
She added: "Sadly, a lot of the time it comes down to people not locking their car doors. These people are just opportunists. If one car door is locked, they'll just move on to the next.
"I keep urging people to lock their doors and to not leave anything of value in their car, and to report it every single time. I appreciate not everybody has the time to wait on the phone on hold for an hour to 101, but you can contact the police on Messenger too, which only takes a few minutes. This is the only way we'll get police presence in the area."
NHS worker Cath Fisher, 57, of Penlan Crescent, said that 2020 was particularly horrendous for car crime after she witnessed cars torched outside her flat - one of which belonged to her neighbour who was unwell at the time.
She said: "Car crime around both areas is just awful. Not long ago, I woke up at about three in the morning after hearing an explosion. I didn't know what the sound was at first, but it turned out to the be sound of tyres exploding on a car that had been torched.
"The car in front of it was burned out, too. That car belonged to my friend, who sadly passed away a few weeks after. I can't say for certain that the loss of his car was linked to his passing, but he was already unwell and I seriously think his car going like that was just enough for him.
"He had nothing, and he had a lot of medical problems, so I do think that was the final blow for him. He was already very unwell, and he didn't deserve that."
Another anonymous resident, who has lived in the area for 40 years, said: "Car crime has been really bad over the past five years in particular. Sometimes it's petty things like wipers being pulled away, or wing mirrors karate kicked down the road. After a relentless few months, it stopped for a while, but recently it's started again.
"Not long ago, we had the problem of off-roaders shooting up and down the street, too. The police said they couldn't do anything because I didn't get the registration number, and within a month there were two serious accidents near us, with life-changing injuries.
The resident believes the problem potentially stems from an influx of "half-way" HMO homes that have been bought by charities in recent years.
She said: "Eaton Crescent used to be a lovely area and the houses there are worth a great deal of money, but two of them are now halfway houses that are home to young people who have nowhere else to go. There are around six of them in the area, but you don't need many people, one person can be quite prolific. They get locked up, and then they're released back into the community within a few months where they just carry on.
Students often get blamed for crime in the area of Uplands and Brynmill, but the resident believes the students are "harmless".
She said: "The students are good fun most of the time, they're harmless and they're part of the community. The problem comes down to management of these HMOs. They need to be managed better.
"Uplands and Brynmill are lovely places to live, it's a real community where everybody knows everybody. It's just we get these spates of car crime every so often."
A spokesman for South Wales Police said: "South Wales Police is aware of an intermittent spate of car crime in the Uplands and Brynmill areas.
"The local policing team will be arranging high visibility patrols in the area to be provide reassurance to the residents of Uplands and Brynmill."
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