Law Officers Investigating Business Property Rampage

~ by Trevor Phipps ~

Downtown Woodland Park got bombarded by vandalism, a situation that scared many local residents and business owners, igniting safety concerns.

On the morning of April 16, owners and employees of local businesses located in downtown Woodland Park arrived to work to find damage to their company’s buildings.

 Many of the local business owners said that the vandalism of downtown stores took place between the night of Monday, April 15, and the early morning of April 16. Multiple cases of vandalism in the city were reported once businesses in the center of the town started to open last Tuesday morning.

Oddly enough, these reports occurred in the wake of concerns by a board member of the Downtown Development Authority about such potential incidents. 

 Woodland Square Vintage Market at 110 Midland Ave. was one of the victims of the suspected vandal assaults. According to reports from business owners in the neighborhood, the store suffered from a broken window when the culprit picked up a large item located outside of the shop and threw it at the building. The suspect then went to the back of the building and wrote with a marker “people are poison” in big letters on the back side of a trailer containing wooden walls parked behind the local vintage market.

 The chaos did not end there as other stores nearby reported incidents of broken windows and graffiti. Rich’s Relics, an antique shop located at 111 N. Center St., also suffered from someone breaking one of their windows.

 Down the road at Brenda’s Boutique and Consignments, sitting at 102 W. Midland Ave., just east of the other two cases, was another location where vandalism was reported. According to the business owner, employees arrived at the store without realizing the damage had occurred.

 Shortly after the shop opened, neighbors living in an apartment building next door notified the business owner that the words “RESPECT NO ONE NOT EVEN YO ‘SELF’” were written with what appeared to be a permanent marker on the back wall of the women’s clothing store. Local business owners and employees also said that they heard there was graffiti found at the town’s Memorial Park located just north of the local businesses where vandalism was also found.

 The vandalism rampage shocked and concerned many other business owners of the area that lucked out and were not victims of any damage. Many of the store operators located close to the businesses that were vandalized believe that they might have caught the suspect in the act on their outdoor cameras and said that they turned their footage over to the Woodland Park Police Department.

 

 Currently, the case is still under investigation and no information surrounding the incident has been released to the public. However, many local residents speculate and point their finger at a man who has recently been seen in the area begging people for money and asking local business owners for work. But as of press time, no suspects have been identified by local law enforcement 

authorities.