Finding a broken window in your home or car is incredibly frustrating, particularly if your possessions were also stolen. Unfortunately, windows are a popular target for vandals, and broken windows are a common result of forcible entry.
When your car or home has been vandalized, it can completely derail your day and put you in a terrible mood: you’re forced to check for your belongings, file a police report, call your insurance company, and fix the damage. You can’t afford to wait, as having a broken window is a neon sign advertising your home or car’s lack of security to criminals.
At Jack’s Glass, we understand how aggravating this situation can be, and we’re here to make it easier for you. We advise you to take the following steps after finding a broken window.
#1: File a police report.
If your home or car has been vandalized or burgled, it’s important to file a police report as soon as possible. This allows the police to better do their job, recovering any possessions stolen and catching the culprits. It also facilitates your insurance claim: the insurance company may ask for a police report when processing your claim. (Other documentation the insurance company may request includes a personal statement and receipts for any stolen items.)
#2: Cover the window.
Repairing a window or removing any remaining shards of sharp glass by yourself is not a good idea: you may cut yourself, unwittingly leave shards of glass behind, or do further damage to the window.
What you can do is carefully clean up the glass shards laying inside your home or car with a heavy-duty wet-dry vacuum (if you have one). Then, you can cover up the entire window with plastic, which ensures that the outside elements (rain, snow, wind, debris, etc.) won’t damage your car or home. This step is especially important not only for the protection of your belongings but also for insurance reasons: if, for example, you leave your broken car window uncovered for a long period of time, and rain damages your car’s electrical system, your insurance company may refuse to cover the resulting damage.
#3: Contact your insurance company.
The expense of repairing a broken window can quickly run up, especially if it includes the costs of repairing a window frame and cleaning the inside of your car or home. You’ll want to talk to your car or homeowners insurance company about covering the damage.
When you call your insurance company, remember that you have a right to choose the business that repairs your window under Kentucky law. Don’t let an insurance agent or Third Party Administrator tell you that you have to trust your window repair to just any business.
#3: Call a glass repair shop.
Depending on who you work with, you can even skip step #3! At Jack’s Glass, we’ll deal with your insurance company for you.
We get that having your car or home vandalized is a frustrating and scary invasion of your privacy and that you want everything to be resolved as quickly as possible—which is why we’re here to make it as easy and painless as possible. We’ll work with your insurance company to successfully process your claim, often at no cost to you.
You can trust that the experts at Jack’s Glass will fix the damage to your home or car’s window quickly, with a focus on high-quality repair and exceptional customer service. Call us at 859-342-JACKS (5225) to find out how we can help you.
Jack’s Glass provides repair and replacement for auto glass, custom solutions for shower and tub enclosures, and many other residential glass items. In addition, we do custom glass projects for businesses. We proudly serve Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, with locations in Elsmere, Covington, Alexandria and Dry Ridge.