And now, the News for Wombats. No wombats' cars were lit afire today....

[captainsblog]

The local paper did some more detailed followup on the incident some of you have already discussed with me: where seven cars were set afire just before dawn Friday on my street and several adjacent ones. I did my own bit of reconnaisance after hitting the gym and the grocery earlier, and saw the worst of the vandalism up close and personal.

The News:

Jim Wolford commuted from work on his bicycle Friday. He didn’t have much choice. Vandals torched the Amherst resident’s pickup truck, minivan and sedan in front of his house early Friday. The charred vehicles are nearly a total loss.

“In all the years I lived here, nothing like this has ever happened,” the lifelong resident of the town said.

Wolford was not alone. A total of seven car fires early Friday rocked the quiet neighborhood near Sheridan Drive and North Forest Road. Amherst police are investigating the fires as arsons.

The fires, which destroyed several of the vehicles and left many residents scrambling to find a new means to get around, left a trail of burnt destruction between 3:30 a.m. and 4:18 a.m.

“They’re all connected, and that’s what we’re working on right now,” said Amherst Assistant Police Chief Tim Green. “For the most part, they appear to be random.”

Here's the paper's picture of the damage to one of the vehicles:



The other "hit" cars that were still outside various homes didn't get done in nearly as badly, although some may have been garaged or towed by today. The scariest sight was one having nothing to do with any of this: the daughter of a family on the shortest of the three streets mostly affected by the vandals, stepping out onto her front lawn in her bridal gown, attendants all in tow. How, I imagine, must she have been feeling, having that kind of crap dropped on her neighbors two days before her wedding?

For our part, we're locking all car and garage doors, and counting on the dogs to serve as the alarm system. I'm leaving for my sister's sometime early tomorrow afternoon, so I may spend the morning clearing the garage so we can get the other two in there while I'm away. Not that they're likely to strike here again, unless they're either unbelievably stupid or (and I can't rule this out) they live in one of the houses on these three streets.

Comments

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

Good idea to get the garage cleaned out and the cars stored.

Poor bride!