Air bags stolen from vehicles at Herndon apartment complex parking garage

HERNDON, Va. - Residents at a Northern Virginia apartment complex received a nasty surprise after thieves stole the airbags out of more than a dozen vehicles overnight.

The Lincoln at Discovery Square at Atlantis Street off of Centreville Road in Herndon is a large apartment building with state-of-the-art security technology. The entrance to the complex's parking garage is equipped with readers to only allow residents inside.

However, the gates to the garage's entrance were left open when the thefts took place and residents who live at the building say this has been the case for the past couple of weeks.

Police say at least 13 vehicles were broken into overnight Friday. Thieves drove in and removed the driver side airbags from the cars.

One man whose car was hit told FOX 5 that all of the cars were Honda Civics or Accords. Jamal Yusuf says building management told him security footage showed the suspects inside the garage for about 30 minutes.

Despite car windows being broken, not a single car alarm went off, according to Yusuf.

"They come in and break the windows and are able to take what they need and so quickly without leaving any evidence at all," Yusuf said. "The officer that I talked to who was in charge of my case told me that the likelihood of this happening had the front gate not been open on both sides would have been really low because it would have meant they would have had to walk around within the garage, which is more risky because people can spot them. One officer told me that this happens once every six months where a particular community is targeted and they just clear out all of the air bags.

"The other thing that was alarming is when I did my claim through insurance and the tow company came, the tow truck driver told me that in the last four months, primarily Honda Civics have been targeted for the exact same thing."

Despite having cash and other valuables visible, the only things stolen were the air bags and dash cams in some cases.

According to Yusuf, most of the Honda cars targeted were listed in a recall of air bags.