RVs vandalized on Tena Street

Sun, May 18 2008

— By Kelly Young
kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com
Seven motor homes being warehoused at Staton Storage were vandalized Monday night, causing a large but currently undetermined amount of damage to the vehicles. The Jacksonville Police Department was called to the scene in the 300 block of Tena Street at 8 a.m. when an employee noticed the damage and notified them.
“The worker observed that several of the recreational vehicles on the property had sustained major damage to the outside of the vehicles. Some of the RVs suffered damage to a few of their windows; others had all of their windows broken out,” said Detective Daniel Franklin. “The actors then made entry and rummaged through the RVs causing additional damage.”
Wayne Bolton, owner of one of the damaged vehicles, said his fire extinguisher had also been used inside his vehicle and graffiti had been sprawled all over his countertops.
“That fence is closed and locked at night. You can’t get in without a key to unlock the gate, so they had to go over the barbed wire fence to get in here,” Bolton said. “Apparently it was just vandalism — they didn’t steal a dang thing. I had a .45 in here that they didn’t touch. I guess I’m going to have to find a new place to park this; because I know they will be back.”
Bolton estimated his recreational vehicle alone sustained $5,000 in damages.
JPD is investigating the crimes, but at this time there are no suspects.
“We have had some burglaries occur at that location in the past, but I don’t remember anything this big or this extensive happening there before,” Franklin said.
Anyone with information regarding Monday night’s vandalism is encouraged to contact JPD at 903-586-2546. Information leading to an arrest in the case could receive a Crime Stoppers cash reward of up to $500.
Caretaker of Staton Storage, Charles Roberts, spent much of Tuesday cleaning up broken glass and fire extinguisher residue.
“It’s just sad that anybody would make a mess like this. It’s sad that people would do something like this just to cause some damage,” Roberts said.