So, as I was backing out of a parking space at a bookstore this evening, the back window on my vehicle shattered. Not in place–it broke into pieces, none larger than a few square inches and most much smaller than that, and fell.
I didn’t hit anything; no vehicles were moving nearby that could have thrown a rock. There were a few kids walking nearby, but I doubt a 14-year-old could’ve thrown a rock that hard from 40 feet away. About a half dozen people saw it break or looked very quickly afterwards, and no one saw anything hit.
There were no rocks or other objects in the car afterwards or nearby on the ground, and no bullet impact or other holes anywhere else in the vehicle. Temperature was in the low seventies, and I didn’t have a heater or defroster running on the window.
So, does anyone know what would cause a car window to break like that? I’m at a loss…
Not sure what caused the winder ta break on ya, but all cars today are required by law to utilize safety glass, which is a sandwich glass designed to break into tiny chunks just as you described.
You didn’t hear an impact of any kind? There almost had to be…
My car was broken into several years ago, and the policeman who investigated found a very small chunk of ceramic and explained to me that kids take a spark plug and break it, then take one of the chunks and throw it at the window and the window shatters with very little sound.
I thought he was full of crap, but if this is true the little buggers could have thrown something small enough that you’d never notice it.