Connellsville residents awake to vandalism
CONNELLSVILLE — The South Side neighborhood in Connellsville erupted with activity last night as people were awakened to find their car tires slashed.
“I got a phone call at 3:30 (a.m.),” Chuck Uher of Connellsville said. “My neighbor called me — and it looked like a block party out here — people standing everywhere. I’ve heard of this happening before, but not like this. This is ridiculous.”
Connellsville Police Chief Jim Capitos said six people — five adults and one juvenile — allegedly took to the streets of Connellsville last night, slashing about 60 tires.
Two of Uher’s tires were destroyed, causing between $200 and $300 in damage. Capitos said in some instances, all four tires were slashed.
“We got hammered last night,” Capitos said. “It’s going to be thousands of dollars in damage. It was really, really extensive.”
Uher’s neighbor, Laura Lininger, said she heard a hissing noise in the middle of the night. As she ventured outside to investigate where the noise was coming from, she saw that two tires on her neighbor’s truck were slashed.
“It sounded like one of the neighbors turned their garden hose on,” Lininger said.
After seeing that other cars fell victim to the same fate, she knocked on her neighbor’s doors.
“People have to get up in the morning, and if they wake up without planning for something like this, it’s difficult,” she said.
Karen Ghrist of Connellsville said she was thankful for Lininger’s advanced notice.
“At least we had a head’s up — at least he (my husband) had time to prepare and find a ride to work,” Ghrist said.
Lininger’s mother was a victim to a tire slashing about 15 years ago.
“Now I fear that something is going to happen in the future,” she said. “It’s not a good feeling.”
Numerous cars were damaged along Patterson Avenue and Vine Street, but the damage extended beyond that neighborhood, Capitos said. He said car tires were also slashed on the city’s North End.
“This was completely random in nature,” Capitos said. “They did whole blocks. In all my years, this is beyond anything I’ve ever seen.”
Carl Kibe, a laborer for Dom Mongell Tire Service in Connellsville, said the business began receiving phone calls around 7 a.m., and some cars arrived at the shop on flatbed trucks. Kibe said about 40 tires were replaced throughout the day Monday.
Police spent all morning canvassing the neighborhoods, talking to people who were affected by the spree of criminal activity.
In addition to tires, a swimming pool was slashed and a car port was damaged, Capitos said.
“We’re trying to locate all of the victims,” he said. “They need to contact us so we can get their information and the amount of damage.”
Capitos said before he releases the names of the alleged vandals, he wants to ensure he locates all of the victims.
Capitos said the alleged vandals confessed, and he hopes to bring charges against them by the end of the week.
He said it may be possible to charge the adults with corruption of a minor, as well as loitering and prowling at night.
“They were confronted and taken into custody,” he said.
“Their response was that they were bored. We want to get the maximum penalty. We are going to prosecute these individuals to the fullest extent possible.”
If convicted, Capitos hopes the alleged vandals will be ordered to pay restitution.
“We were pretty shocked it was that much destruction,” Ghrist said. “It’s sad that people choose to do this — showing they don’t have any respect for what people work for.”