Fireworks reports keep city police busy
Uniontown police spent the better part of 24 hours responding to reports of fireworks throughout the city. And, in some of the cases, what might have started out as Fourth of July celebrations turned into blatant criminal mischief.
“We had multiple fireworks complaints,” Uniontown police Chief Kyle W. Sneddon said Wednesday. “This year it was really bad.”
Sneddon said the combination of alcohol and explosives is a deadly mixture that often has his force on high alert during the Fourth of July holiday and Tuesday was no exception.
At 10:07 a.m. Tuesday police were dispatched to their first report of fireworks on Park Avenue, according to police.
After responding for reports of fireworks on Millview Street, Wilson Avenue, Uniontown Street, Connellsville Street, the Lincoln Street Park, Lenox Street and eight reports of fireworks and criminal mischief in Pershing Court, city police were happy to see the sun rise Wednesday, responding to a final fireworks call at 3:38 a.m. Wednesday.
City police said vandals taped explosive fireworks to the windows of B.J. Mundel Furniture Co. at 134 Connellsville St., causing the windows to break at 10:38 p.m. Tuesday.
Then, at 11:54 p.m., city police responded to 53 Pershing Court where vandals used an M-80 firecracker to destroy parts of a car owned by Teresa Andrus.
Police said in addition to the damage to Andrus’s car, vandals also blew up her mailbox, a flowerpot on her porch and the front window of her apartment.
Later, at 3:04 a.m., police responded a second time to 53 Pershing Court after vandals lit another M-80 firecracker and set it in the broken glass of her apartment window that had been shattered earlier.
Then, less than 30 minutes later, police responded a third time to Andrus’s apartment after vandals used an M-80 firecracker to blow out the rear window of her car.
City Detective Donald “Butch” Gmitter instructed Andrus to have her vehicle towed “before someone torched it.”
“This was an ongoing problem all night long in Pershing Court,” Patrolman Chuck David noted in another report and said that the housing complex had been patrolled throughout the night between calls for service elsewhere in the city.
Rutter also described the scene at 3:35 a.m., in the housing project police often refer to simply as “PC,” as “fireworks going off everywhere and people running.”
After the mayhem subsided, Sneddon said several area residents will face charges in some of the incidents.
“We understand that people want to celebrate and we use common sense when enforcing the law,” Sneddon said. “Several citations will be issued in connection with the fireworks complaints.”