Fifteen cases of car vandalism in one night and 20 recent car burglaries have downtown residents worried.

When Matilda Stephens arrived at work Thursday, a police officer greeted her.

The van belonging to the Sunshine Children’s Center, a nonprofit organization of which she is director, had been vandalized.

The rear window, made of relatively strong glass, had been smashed, and the body of the vehicle had been dented. Nothing was taken.

For Stephens, this was déj vu.

The night before, a window had been smashed out of her car and a mirror had been gauged and broken.

Stephens’ is just one of at least 15 cars and one business that owners reported as vandalized Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

“Whoever’s doing this is just doing it maliciously,” Stephens said. “It makes no rhyme or reason, they’re not stealing anything.”

The string of damaged property was focused mostly downtown and the surrounding area, according to police reports.

Residents on Jefferson, North Union, North Pearl, Miller, Homochitto, Madison, Adlrich, Mansfield, State, North Wall, Washington and North Martin Luther King Streets reported damages. No valuables were reported missing.

The damage to the van Stephens more than the damage to her car, she said.

“We are a nonprofit,” she said. “That’s not an expense we planned for. We transport six kids per vehicle. If we have more than six kids in the shelter, it’s imperative we have both vehicles. If we have an emergency, we will have to take them in cars. It’s very frustrating.”

Stephens said she hopes people will pay more attention to their surroundings and report suspicious activity, maybe preventing further damages.

Natchez Police Chief Mike Mullins said that was exactly what he would advise.

“People in the neighborhood should keep an eye out,” Mullins said. “If they see or hear something strange, hear dogs barking late at night, please call and we’ll come out and check.”

The vandalism comes on the heels of a number of car burglaries, roughly 20 over the past two weeks, Mullins said. He could not say whether or not the burglaries and vandalisms were linked.

Investigators have a suspect for the recent burglaries, Mullins said.

“We’re looking for him right now,” he said.

The number of car burglaries in January, 17, went down from those in December, 23, partly because two arrests were made a few weeks back.

The two men were charged with car burglaries over the time period of late December and early January, Mullins said.

“One person can be responsible for a lot of crime, especially in a small town,” he said.

The best thing to do to protect a car from being burglarized is to keep valuables out of plain sight, he said.

The most commonly stolen items over the past few months were purses, some laptops and long guns.

“Don’t leave anything on the seats of any value whatsoever,” Mullins said. “If you see someone walking in the neighborhood late at night who you’ve never seen before, call us and we’ll identify the person.”