Someone Smashed My Car Window. What Do I Do First?

Updated September 2026 · BL Auto Glass · Serving Central Florida

It is a bad morning, and the order you do things in actually matters. Photographs before cleanup, police report before the claim, and glass last.

The short answer

Photograph everything before you touch anything, file a police report, then call for glass. Insurers ask for the report number, and once you have swept up the glass and thrown away the broken pieces you cannot go back and document it. The whole sequence takes about twenty minutes. Then call 407-388-4718 and we come to the car.

First, before you clean anything

Stand back and look at the car before you open a door. If a window is gone there is usually glass across the seat and in the door card, and there may be someone still nearby.

Then photograph it, generously. Wide shots showing the whole vehicle and where it is parked, close-ups of the broken window and the door, and interior shots showing the glass and anything disturbed. Take more than you think you need. These are free now and impossible later.

Write down what is missing while it is fresh. Insurers ask, and the glovebox contents are the thing people forget.

File the police report

Do this even if nothing was taken and even if you do not expect anyone to be caught. The report number is what your insurer will ask for, and a claim without one is a slower claim.

In most of Central Florida you can file online or by phone for a vehicle burglary with no injury. You do not need to wait at the car for an officer in most cases. Get the report or case number written down before you hang up.

What Florida insurance actually covers here

This is where people get caught out, so it is worth being precise.

A smashed side window from a break-in is covered by comprehensive coverage, the same part of the policy that covers theft and storm damage. But the zero-deductible rule people know from windshields does not apply. Florida Statute 627.7288 waives the deductible for windshield damage specifically. Side windows, quarter glass and rear glass are covered by comprehensive, but your normal deductible applies.

So the question is simply whether the glass costs more than your deductible. If it does not, claiming gains you nothing and still puts a claim on your record. We can tell you roughly what the glass will cost before you decide whether to involve the insurer at all.

Covering the window until it is fixed

If the car has to sit overnight, cover the opening. A heavy-duty rubbish bag and packing tape works, taped to the painted frame rather than the rubber seal, and taped on the outside so wind pressure pushes it flat instead of peeling it. Florida afternoon rain will find any gap you leave at the top.

Do not drive far with a plastic-covered window. It is loud, it blocks your view to that side, and at highway speed the covering usually fails.

If you can, park it somewhere covered. Wet upholstery is a bigger problem than the glass.

The glass part is the quick bit

Here is the good news in an otherwise annoying day. A door window is held in by hardware, not adhesive, so there is no cure time and no waiting before you can drive. That is different from a windshield, which is bonded to the body and needs time to reach safe drive-away strength.

A door glass replacement is usually done in about an hour, and the car is ready when we are. We also vacuum the glass out of the door cavity and the seat, which matters more than it sounds: fragments left in the door shell rattle for months and can jam the window.

We come to your home or work anywhere in Central Florida. Call 407-388-4718.