Over $500 in damage to local businesses done Thursday night
Cazenovia police are currently investigating reported vandalism that occurred to two properties on Albany Street during Thursday night when a beer bottle was thrown through the front door window of the Greater Cazenovia Area Chamber of Commerce and a large planter pot was broken in front of J.D. Hunter Home.
According to Cazenovia Police Chief Michael Hayes, there was a witness to the crime who gave a statement to police, and an arrest is expected to occur by the end of the day Friday.
The cost of the damage between the two locations is estimated to be at least $700, according to the victims.
According to Anna Marie Neuland, executive director of the chamber of commerce, which is located at 59 Albany St., a beer bottle with “a lot of beer in it” was thrown through the right front door window of the chamber. When she arrived at work at 9:30 a.m. Friday morning she found a “big hole” in the window and “big shards of glass all over.”
“Beer was splattered all over the front door, inside … glass was all over in the inside, on the steps, glass shards are stuck on the inside window. It was kind of a mess.”
Neuland said the witness to the event saw the entire thing, took a picture of the perpetrator and then found the perpetrator on Facebook. She said the suspect is not a student of Cazenovia College but is in town visiting a college student for graduation weekend.
“Obviously he probably had been drinking, maybe out partying … but [the witness said] it was definitely intentional,” Neuland said.
Building owner Leonard Dwyer said it cost him “just under” $500 to fix the broken window. “I’ll press charges if I don’t get restitution,” he said.
The same suspect is believed to have broken the planter pot, said John Hunter, owner of J.D. Hunter Home, which is located at 55 Albany St. He said the pot has a $200 value, and the blue spruce tree inside the pot — which is still alive — has a $100 value.
“It’s just sad that kids have to be that destructive,” said Hunter. “They should have to do community service.”
