News

Actions

Provo police seek teen suspects after vandals repeatedly destroy widow’s fence

Posted

PROVO, Utah -- Teens are terrorizing a Provo neighborhood and have been for months.

Their main target appears to be a widow's home at the corner of 3650 North and 600 East in Provo.

“They're not understanding the damage that they're doing, the hurt that they're causing,” said Senior Officer Shawn Parker of the Provo Police Department.

A usually quiet neighborhood has become the target of teen vandals.

“It's a constant problem, and it's an annoyance to the people who live there, and it's damaging other people's property for no reason,” Parker said.

The main victim of the damages is a widow who lives on the corner. In the past several months, police say the vandals have smashed, crashed and knocked down the fence six times, amounting to at least a thousand dollars in damages.

The last hit was caught on a trail camera around 2 a.m., and the owner called police.

“She heard them and came running out and didn't see them,” Pam Avery said.

In her 37 years of living in this neighborhood, this is the worst she’s ever seen. Avery’s mailbox was knocked over. Every time she turns the corner to her home, she’s reminded of the damage the vandals caused to her and her neighbor’s home.

“You have this perfectly nice lady, and you have this damage happening to her fence over and over and over,” Parker said.

To the vandals, police have a message.

“You may think it's fun, you may think it's a game, and your friends think you're cool for doing it, but it's damaging property [and] people you don't know,” Parker said.

Neighbors hope the surveillance picture gets the teens caught.

“The only way they're going to learn to not do it anymore is that we don’t put up with it,” Avery said.

The neighborhood has requested a light be installed at the corner in the hopes of bringing the vandalism issues to an end.