A warning from a local woman is going viral after someone blew out the back window of her car at a stoplight.
It happened around 2 p.m. Monday at Calliope and Tchoupitoulas Streets under the Pontchartrain Expressway.
The woman said she wants others to watch their backs while police investigate.
“It literally scared the living daylights out of me,” the Algiers Point woman said. The woman said she was waiting for a red light to change at Calliope and Tchoupitoulas streets when the silence was broken by a loud "pop."
“I heard a very loud popping sound," she said. "It sounded like a gunshot, and when I went to check my rearview window, it had spider webbed,” she said.
The woman has asked WWL-TV to keep her identity private.
After her Volkswagen's back window blew out, the woman said only one word came to mind: gunfire.
“I went as fast as I could through the intersection because I thought someone had shot me," she said. "It sounded like a gunshot, very, very loud."
The woman's Facebook post and a picture of her damaged car are making the social media rounds as a warning to others about the danger.
After the incident, she managed to get away and then pull over near the Bridge House to call police. The woman said here she learned her story was not unique.
“As we were talking, a few members of Bridge House came out to speak with me, and they said, apparently he's a homeless man who lives under one of the houses nearby and had done this two other times this week," she said. "The last victim he did this to he used a sledgehammer."
The woman is counting her blessings and is thankful not to be hurt. She helped police search her car for clues to figure out what happened to her back window, but they stumbled across nothing.
“I’m very concerned this could happen to someone else," she said. "If they had children in the car, or if they had other passengers, I’m also concerned whoever did this could be escalating and make it worse for the next person,” she said.
New Orleans Police Department confirms it is investigating this case and looking into reports of similar cases. If you can help detectives, call Crimestoppers at 822-1111.