Lead Story
Costly Weekend Vandalism Spree
Photo By: Gary Wamsley
Mark Chafee, owner of the Berthoud Bed and Breakfast, holds one of two large stones used to demolish his business sign. The other stone is visible behind the thick plastic facing. Chafee said it will be $3,000 to $4,500 to repair the sign.
By Lizzy Scully & Gary Wamsley
The Berthoud Recorder
Berthoud police faced a busy Sunday morning dealing with numerous reports of vandalism. Mailbox posts in the 100 block of Welch Avenue had been broken, the Berthoud Bed and Breakfast Plexiglas, neon sign at the corner of Highway 56 and First Street was shattered and a great deal of damage was done at the Botterill property across the highway from the Bed and Breakfast.
Police were on the scene investigating the incident and were going to take the Plexiglas from the B&B sign to the station to dust for fingerprints. Either the glass or the plastic apparently cut one of the culprits, and there are several spots of blood, which the police are taking to the crime lab for possible DNA analysis.
As of press time, Chief Glenn Johnson stated he was so busy wading through paperwork regarding the vandalism, three domestic violence incidents and a car break-in this past weekend, that he did not have time to comment on whom may have caused the damage or whether or not the police had determined anything from the bloody fingerprints. Johnson also could not comment on why the vandals went to a great deal of trouble to destroy the mailbox support posts, rather than smashing just the mailboxes, which is more typical. Amy Colella, whose heavy vinyl mailbox post was battered, said her dog started barking about 1:30 a.m., but she quieted the dog instead of investigating why he was barking.
Large rocks were evident at the B&B sign where they had been used to shatter the thick Plexiglas face of the sign. The neon tubes were heavily damaged, said B&B owner Mark Chafee.
“I think it was just a random act of destruction,” Chafee stated. “They certainly went across the street and got the Botterill property. I think they were just out to destroy.” Chafee added that people loved the B&B sign and often commented on it, and that it was going to take more time and money - potentially thousands of dollars - than he originally thought to get it back in shape.
“It took the air out of my sail,” he stated, adding he was not optimistic the police would track the perpetrators down.
At the Botterill house, all the glass windows in the garage were broken. The barn also sustained a great deal of damage with the door torn off and all the windows broken out. The Berthoud Historical Society stores some materials in the old barn, but George Botterill said there appeared to be nothing missing. In addition to the damage to the Botterill property, the new cedar fencing just north of the barn had one section completely knocked down and several nearby slats were broken.
In a likely unrelated incident, an unlocked storage shed and a pickup truck in the 700 block of Fourth Street were ransacked sometime Saturday night or Sunday morning while owner Carrie Bro was away celebrating the children’s birthday. This incident differed from the acts of vandalism in that no damage was done, but the contents of storage containers was strewn about while numerous tools, fishing gear and a hunting bow were ignored in the intrusion. The intruder also entered the vehicle and opened the storage console, but again, nothing appeared to have been taken.
“It makes me sick to my stomach when you think you are safe in a small town and then something like this happens,” said Bro.
