BELLBROOK — A Bellbrook man told police he didn’t want to press charges against a woman who was arrested for allegedly vandalizing a silver vehicle parked in his driveway, even though his Tesla Cybertruck was damaged and needed repairs of about $10,000.
“It’s a really strange situation,” Daniel Jerez said Wednesday. “You never imagine it could happen until it does.”
“It was a shocking experience,” Jerez said of what happened Monday afternoon to the new 2024 vehicle he was using to operate his ice cream shop, Cyber Cream Dayton.
He was at home when he heard what sounded like glass breaking. His Ring video camera captured the sound of someone smashing a car window. A quick search of car dealerships, including Autotrader in Dayton and CarGurus.com, showed that Tesla said the car had shatter-resistant glass and was selling for $116,990 used and $146,800 new.
The woman parked her vehicle in the driveway, got out and began smashing the vehicle’s windows, then when she was done, got back in her car and backed out of the driveway and drove away.
Police say she broke all but one of the windows.
“There were two children in the back seat, both of them crying. They had just witnessed something really strange and mysterious,” Jerez said.
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Sugarcreek Township police found and arrested the woman a few minutes later near the Cracker Barrel access road at the intersection of Wilmington Pike and Feedwire Road, identifying her as 29-year-old Courtney Piotrowski of Richmond, Indiana.
Police said that before his arrest, Piotrowski went to a neighbor’s house on the same street as Jerez and knocked over two propane tanks on the property. The neighbor told police that Piotrowski yelled at Jerez before running off.
Bellbrook police issued her a citation for misdemeanor criminal damage to property.
Meanwhile, Piotrowski is scheduled to appear in Xenia Municipal Court on charges Sugarcreek County police say are connected to her on July 29. In a supplemental police incident report on the vandalism involving Jerez, officers said she and her vehicle are “connected to recent crime victim reports on Ferry Road in Sugarcreek County and multiple traffic complaints in the city and township.”
Jerez said the damage to the Cybertruck will force him to cease operating his ice cream truck business for the rest of the summer, which he started in May.
“Within 30 seconds, our business was wiped out,” he said.
Jerez said he had never seen the woman before Monday.
“My heart goes out to the kids and we just hope that what’s best happens for everybody and that everybody comes out of this safely,” he said.
