A Union teen-ager is accused of breaking into cars at a local apartment complex.

James R. Dawkins, 19, of 152 Sunny Acres Road was charged Wednesday by the Union Public Safety Department with two counts of car breaking.

Around 6 a.m. city officers were called to Union Mill Crossing Apartments on 120 North Boyce Street after it was reported someone was breaking into a car. 911 advised that three men were leaving in a light brown car with dark tinted windows.

A victim told Officer Dean Allen that he came out to go to work and saw that the rear driver’s side window was broken out of his 1994 Chevrolet Caprice. He said that he had seen the three men at the back of another car with the trunk open. When they saw him they fled in the car toward Main Street. One had a black shirt pulled over his head and one had a white shirt pulled over his head.

The victim said the suspects tried to remove his CD player from the dash but were unsuccessful. They did take two 12-inch speakers from the car’s trunk.

Another person there told Allen her cousin’s 1992 Buick Roadmaster had been broken into. The trunk was open and a crow bar was on the ground behind the car. This was the car the three men had run from when the first victim came out. Nothing was taken from it.

A short time later, Officer Mark Gregory spotted the suspect car crossing over Main Street from South Church Street and stopped it. Dawkins was the driver. He was taken in for questioning and arrested.

An investigation into the case is continuing. More arrests are anticipated, First Sgt. Troy Wright said.

A similar incident was reported on 175 Industrial Park Road. A victim told Officer Angela Cogdill that someone broke into his 1996 Chevrolet Caprice sometime between 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. The driver’s side back window was broken and his checkbook was stolen from the glove box. Two 500 watt Memphis Amp and two Kicker Punch speakers were stolen. these are worth $350.

Vandalism

The public safety department is investigating cases of vandalism that may have been caused by a child throwing something from a school bus.

Wednesday around 12:45 p.m. a victim told Sgt. David Brewington that as she was traveling west on East Main Street in the 1000 block, a school bus passed her traveling east. A plastic water bottle filled with some type of red colored juice hit the windshield of her 1996 Ford Explorer and cracked the windshield.

About that same time, a postal worker driving a post office vehicle reported he was making a right turn off Mabry Street onto East Main street when a bottle struck the windshield of the vehicle and cracked it. The liquid in this bottle was white. The postal worker said a school bus was in the area when his vehicle was hit.

A short time later, a public safety officer reported that the windshield of his wife’s Toyota was struck while she was in the South Street/Enterprise Street area. The victim said she stopped to allow a school bus to enter South Enterprise and as the bus passed she heard a loud noise and saw the damage.

Thefts

On 309 South Church St., a victim told Officer Angela Cogdill Wednesday that she bought a tent on Sunday and put it on her front porch. Wednesday she noticed it was gone. The tent is worth $150.