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Thursday, Oct. 01, 2009

Tip List: Police catch young vandals but window-breaking spree continues

"Who broke my window?"

That's a refrain Raymond Garavito, 60, has being repeating a lot lately.

The last couple weeks have been less than peaceful for Garavito.

After moving into his new home on Sixth Street at Redwood Avenue in Atwater, Garavito had his car's window broken. That wasn't all. Soon his son's car windows got broken, too -- twice.

Now he parks his car facing toward the street since putting in a new windshield is cheaper than a rear window, he said. Garavito says the breakage has been happening to all the cars on the street.

He called the police. He says they told him they couldn't do much to stop the crime because they didn't have the manpower.

Atwater police detective Armando Echeverria said officers have been aware of the crimes since the beginning of September. And they have been investigating.

Recently, they found evidence at a crime scene leading them to several suspects, he said.

Last week, they interviewed four teenage boys who admitted to the crimes.

Echeverria says they shot out or broke more than 60 windows across town. That's not all. The boys also broke windows with rocks and bricks and spray-painted their way across town.

"They were bored," he said.

The damages they caused may run up to roughly $15,000, said Echeverria.

Just when it seemed as if they had nabbed the criminals, more windows got broken.

Just last weekend the window-breaking continued. It looks as though the police didn't catch the right vandals after all. Echeverria said they brought in the four suspects again after the weekend window-breaking, but he doesn't believe the new vandalism spree was their doing.

For the time being it looks as if Atwater PD's leads have all dried up.

What is the problem: a group of vandals has been shooting out windows across Atwater and Merced with BB guns for a month. The police have yet to apprehend the perpetrators.

Who is at fault: the vandals, of course.

Tip off the tip list!

If you see something broken or in need of repair in your neighborhood, call the Sun-Star Tip List reporter, Jonah Owen Lamb, with your tips at (209) 385-2484 or e-mail jlamb@mercedsun-star.com.