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::: COMMUNITY NEWS
The car, which had been parked at the Gazebo for a week, had its window and windshield broken over the weekend. It had suffered other damage earlier. Vandals damage car parked in Gazebo lot Updated Thursday,
December 14, 2006 Vandals damaged a Toyota sedan parked at the Gazebo within sight of the North Gate over the weekend, breaking the windshield and the driver’s window. The car’s green exterior was covered with squiggles of a white substance and glass shards were scattered across the beige cloth seats. Other damages included a flat tire, missing front light, dents, scratches, bent windshield wiper, broken side mirror and a defaced resident bar code sticker. The front license plate was missing. Indications are not all the damage was recent. The remaining license plate showed the car’s registration had expired in July.
When Security Chief Greg Remson contacted the owner, a South resident, about the vandalism, he learned the car is being donated to a charitable organization. The resident left the car in the lot to await pick-up, Remson said. Rancho Murieta Association maintenance workers spotted broken glass by the car Monday morning and alerted Security. Maintenance workers said the Avalon had been parked in the lot for about a week, and Remson said that was also his understanding. It wasn’t the only incident of vandalism to befall the car during that time. A security log entry for Thursday, Dec. 7, reports that a car parked at the Gazebo had been vandalized with food. RMA Compliance Officer Ian J. Hunt inadvertently documented the serial vandalism of the car when he took photos of it Friday as part of the process of establishing it was being stored in the lot in violation of RMA rules. He was alerted to its presence by another staffer. “Cars just aren’t a big red flag,” he said. Usually the compliance officer is on the look-out for motor home or boat storage at the lot. Except for the smashed windshield and driver’s window, the car had the same damages on Friday as it did on Monday, when he returned to verify it hadn’t been moved for 72 hours, Hunt said.
The car's windshield was broken and one of its wipers was bent in the vandalism. The North Gate is visible from the car's location in the lot, but gate officers have no view of the vehicle. Photos taken Friday show the front flat tire, the missing light, substances tossed on the car and other damage. Hunt, who drove a wrecker and ran an automotive salvage business for years before coming to work for the RMA, said it’s possible not all the damage to the car was inflicted at the Gazebo parking lot. There were traces of rust where the car had been scratched and dented on the passenger side and there was no debris on the pavement under the broken mirror and empty light cavity. When the RMA Compliance vehicle was vandalized in March as it sat overnight at the RMA parking lot, pieces of the broken lights and their plastic covers were left behind, Hunt recalled. Other instances of vandalism over the weekend targeted pumpkins and holiday decorations on the North, according to Security.
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