Homeless man caught on video bashing car windshield with skateboard

A homeless man is still at large after a violent act of vandalism on Wednesday night at a Circle K in Palm Desert.

A woman was driving to the local convenience store on San Pablo Avenue and San Gorgonio Way when she saw a homeless man lose his skateboard in the road. She decided to give him safety advice before going on her way.

“As I passed him, I rolled my window down and I just said ‘be really careful, people speed on this street.’ That was it,” said Kimberly, the woman who preferred to keep her last name private.

What happened next was shocking. As soon as the woman parked and walked into the nearby Circle K, video surveillance showed the man getting off his skateboard and smashing it over her car windshield on the drivers side.

“As things started sinking in and I was waiting for authorities to arrive, I just kept thinking, ‘what if this had been my mother, my grandfather, an elderly individual within the community’,” she pondered. “What if I’d been in the car?'”

Amazingly, the man who’s suspected of the crime returned to the same store to buy a beverage Thursday morning. He’s seen wearing glasses with a backwards cap. Clerks at the store know him as “Steve” and said he’s a regular who is homeless.

The homeless population is prevalent in the area, possibly because of the St. Margaret’s Outreach Center on San Pablo, directly across from the Circle K. The center closed its doors for good on June 23rd, nine days before the vandalism crime.

Businesses in the past have complained about the center attracting the homeless, but some residents like Melinda Ascani said the homeless don’t bother anyone.

“I come pretty often, my kids like the slurpees and I know the older kids in our complex come here quite often by themselves and they don’t have any problems,” Ascani explained. “So I’ve never had any issues with any of the homeless people.”

But for Kimberly, she wants the man in custody before he possibly does more serious damage, with or without his skateboard.

“This person’s obviously unstable and we need to find him and that’s why I reached out to you [KESQ/CBS Local 2]. I want to make sure that we get this gentleman off of the streets before something happens again like this or something worse.”