By Chloe Rusconi Posted April 23, 2009
If you were a high school student going on a trip to Las Vegas for the Basketball State Championships, wouldn’t the ideal place to leave your car would be your own school parking lot? It wasn’t a safe haven for six students and two coach’s cars. In the early morning hours of February 27 the vice principal, Mr. Welter, discovered these seven cars that had been left in the high school’s parking lot had been vandalized and one car appeared to have been stolen.
The windows of these vehicles had been broken out with rocks; stereos had been taken out, all of the belongings rifled through and the car completely trashed with the students’ belongings scattered throughout the car. One parking space had broken glass but no car so it was believed that a car was missing and might be stolen. Later that day the stolen car was recovered where it had been abandoned in the vicinity of Winnemucca.
“I would say that it happened in the early morning hours, probably about two or three o’clock,” Mr. Welter said.
The school is not responsible for the vandalized cars, so the students will have to pay for the damage through their insurance companies. Both Humboldt County School District Police Officer Dawson and Mr. Welter said that if the vandals are caught they will be responsible for restitution. Both police and school believe it was not a high school student because the vandals were looking for quick cash items such as car stereos that they could sell.
“The Winnemucca Police Department is working the case as well,” Dawson said. He does not believe that any one person was targeted and that it was a completely random attack. Each time the vandals broke into a car it was a felony so they will be charged with eight felonies and restitution.
“A felony in Nevada is prison time,” Officer Dawson said.
In the next few weeks, parents of the students whose cars were vandalized will send in the estimates of the damage. The sum of the damage will be added to the vandal’s restitution fee.
