3 teenage girls arrested in Brookline, accused of breaking into cars

PITTSBURGH — Neighbors in Brookline tell Channel 11 teenage girls are terrorizing their neighborhood, getting into their cars, rummaging around and stealing. Three teen girls, ages 14, 15 and 16 were arrested and charged.

“You don’t expect that to happen — girls doing that,” Robert Fields tells Channel 11. “I can see the boys doing that because they’re always out here.”

Neighbors say the girls are seen on Ring video, checking car door handles in the middle of the day.

Police say they’ve arrested and charged the three with stealing out of multiple cars on Starkamp Avenue in Brookline.

On Berkshire Street, neighbors say they, too, were hit by the same group of girls, some trying to capture and identify them on their home security cameras. One man was so fed up, neighbors say he ran after the girls as they scurried down an alley.

A local pastor from Narrow Gate Ministries says teens need to be supported and they need to know they have a purpose beyond bad behavior. That’s why she tries to mentor youth and provide them with other opportunities.

“After the pandemic, it seems like people are lost. They don’t know their place in life,” Kimberly Sanfilippo said. “My heart goes out to the teens especially, because it reflects what’s going on at home. Not all the times, but sometimes. There’s maybe a lack of love, they have pain, they’re seeing things in their family and maybe they don’t know how to deal with it. So they take it out with anger and maybe coming out in the neighborhood and doing things they shouldn’t do.”

Neighbors say they’re just pleased to see there are consequences for their actions.

“They have to hold themselves accountable for everything they do,” Fields said. “We did — they have to, too.”

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