Published: March 27, 2008 10:35 pm      

Vandals strike vehicles on Princeton street

PRINCETON — An unknown number of vandals struck a Princeton neighborhood late Wednesday night or in the early morning hours on Thursday damaging eight vehicles parked on North 8th Street between Mercer Street and Straley Avenue.

“Three of my tires were slashed,” a resident of a nearby apartment complex said. “Whoever did this slashed the side of the tires where they couldn’t be repaired. I think everyone had the expense of replacing their tires and a towing bill.”

Sgt. W.A. Perry of the Princeton Police Department said that a person or persons unknown slashed the tires on seven vehicles and put a hole in the gasoline tank of a truck in order to steal the gas. “We get vandalism from time to time, but not as much as what happened there last night,” Perry said. “The vandals cut the sidewalls of all those tires, and all they (the vehicle owners) can do is replace the tire when something like that happens.”

Perry said that he does not think that the vandalism was targeted against any one individual. “They hit every vehicle parked along that street last night,” he said. “Some live in that area, and others were just parked there. There was no personal gain on the part of the vandals. It’s difficult to investigate vandalism unless we can catch them in the act.”

Perry asked the public to contact the city police department at 487-5001 if they saw anything suspicious in that vicinity late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. “Any kind of help would be appreciated,” Perry said.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com