Glass Shop Employee Charged With Breaking Store Windows

A longtime employee of a glass shop was charged Friday with five felony counts of vandalism for shattering dozens of shop windows along Ventura Boulevard, authorities said.

Richard Joseph Angona, 39, of Woodland Hills could face up to five years in prison if convicted on all charges, Deputy Dist. Atty. James A. Baker said.

Angona, who remained free on $5,000 bail, was arrested Jan. 9 after a lengthy investigation by Los Angeles police into a case of vandalism on Ventura Boulevard, where 367 shop windows worth about $180,000 had been shattered since July.

The investigation led to Angona after a witness provided police with a description and partial license plate number of the car used. A gas-powered pellet pistol was seized during his arrest.

The vandalism investigation is continuing because authorities do not believe Angona broke all the windows. Detective Tony Vlaskamp said “copy cat” vandals who did not know Angona also probably broke many of the windows.

Angona was fired from his job as a salesman at North Hollywood Glass & Mirror Co. after his arrest. Police said the owner and other employees of the shop were not involved in or aware of the vandalism.

Though investigators originally believed Angona shot out the windows so that the shop he worked at might make money replacing them, there was no evidence that he or the shop profited from the crime, they now say. Angona’s motive remains unknown, investigators said.

Because each felony count required a minimum of $5,000 damage, the five charges against Angona are based on 32 broken windows, many broken repeatedly at the same businesses, authorities said. He was linked to them by the method by which they were broken and his own statements to police, Baker said.