The frustrated folks at the Seymour Land Trust are tired of being a target for vandals, so now they’re using social media to fight back.
On July 5, someone broke a lamp post at the land trust property on Chatfield Street.
The land trust posted a photo of the damage on the organization’s Facebook page the evening of July 6, along with an offer:
“If you would like to come forward BEFORE we go through our camera footage, that would be the smart thing to do.
Vandalization like this cost us a lot of money we could spend on community events and our land.”
The Valley Indy shared the photo and post on its Facebook page. Most readers were aghast, but a few said the damage could have been an accident.
Accident?
This was not an accident.
The Seymour Land Trust posted the video above Wednesday afternoon.
The video shows headlights from a vehicle show up. Then two young men, perhaps in their teens or twenties, walk up the sidewalk and begin smashing two lamp posts.
Sure, boys will be boys, but the ferocity of the attack is strange — something not conveyed in a still photo.
The vandals leave, but one re-emerges, apparently to retrieve a soda can he had dropped.
He takes one last kick at land trust property before disappearing into the shadows.
The video was seen by slightly more than 2,400 people within an hour of being posted.
If anyone has information, the phone number for the Seymour Police Department is 203 – 881-7600.
This is not the first time the land trust has been vandalized. In June someone smashed an elegant, handmade sign.
The sign has been made as part of an Eagle Scout project.
In 2009, land trust members asked for more police patrols after a rash of vandalism.
Alex Danka, the land trust’s president, said Wednesday that the vandalism is disheartening to members of the nonprofit group.
But he said he’ll cut the vandals a break — if they come forward.
“If they call me and say they’re sorry, I won’t press charges,” he said. “But if (they) don’t come forward, we will find out who (they) are.”
To that end, Danka said the land trust is putting up a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the vandals.
Danka said whoever did the damage can repair it.
“Let them put the new poles in and we’ll call it even,” Danka said.
