East County neighbors are on high alert after several of them had their vehicles severely damaged, for no apparent reason other than to cause trouble.
It happened in El Cajon in the early hours of April Fool's day along and near Cordial Road off the Lake Jennings Park Road exit.
Neighbors said at least six of them were randomly targeted; however, so far, on the San Diego County Sheriff’s Crime Map, there are three listed vandalism crimes and one vehicle break-in.
One neighbor, Denise Ruis, said around 9:30 p.m. Sunday night she was awake watching television in her living room when she heard a thud on her rooftop.
“I thought it was loud but I did not think too much of it, then I heard my garage door that opens into my home, the door knob shaking,” said Denise Ruis. “I was scared so I yelled ‘Who is that?’ and then they ran away.”
She said she was hoping it was her neighbor but does not know why they would not have called ahead of time before trying to come in.
The next morning she saw her friend’s car, who is staying with them, covered with black and blue spray paint. All four tires were slashed.
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“They didn’t steal one thing; they just took and destroyed someone’s property," she said.
She realized later that the thud she heard on her roof was the lock bar that was inside her friend’s vehicle. She said the vandal took the lock bar off the steering wheel and threw half of it onto her roof.
They even wrote President Trump’s name on the hood and wrote numbers in black paint on their fence.
Down the street along the 8600 block of Cordial Drive, another neighbor, Lyn Mackay, had three of her vehicles covered in spray paint, and one of them even had spray paint all inside.
“This is kind of shocking to us,” said Mackay. “We are hoping it’s a random, on- off freak-thing.”
They have lived there for two years and have always felt safe until now. She said another neighbor a couple of houses down had the name “Trump” written in spray paint on his vehicle.
“I am definitely buying cameras,” said Mackay.
Ruis also said she plans to invest in surveillance cameras because she wants to catch whoever ruined her friend’s car and whoever tried to get into her home. She said her friend has already faced several recent hardships, and already feels deflated. Now he has to clean up this new mess.
“His dad just died like two weeks ago, and his mom just found out she has stage four cancer,” said Ruis. “He is just devastated, and now this? He feels like everything is crashing down. To whoever did that, I hope that makes you feel bad, because I kind of doubt that it will cause if you can do this kind of stuff, you probably don’t have a conscience, but just in case you do, I think it’s good that you know what you did to somebody and that is not ok.”
