On East and West Sides of Town, Vandals Attack Mailboxes and Private Property

Obscene drawings were spray painted on pavement and a stone wall, and a number of mailboxes were smashed in a series of vandalism incidents that took place on both the east and west sides of New Canaan last week.

On the east side of town:

• On the morning of Aug. 15, a Buttery Road resident told police a bench had been drawn on with black magic marker and moved from one side of her property to another some time on the night of Aug. 14 or early Aug. 15. No formal report was filed.
• On the morning of Aug. 16, the same resident reported that the bench had been vandalized with red spray paint. The bench was valued at $350.
• Also on the morning of Aug. 16, a Betsy's Lane resident reported a hammock was stolen from her property. The homeowner found the hammock tied around a stop sign at the corner of Betsy’s Lane and Buttery Road. The hammock was valued at $200.
• A third caller on the morning of Aug. 16 reported to police that the mailbox at her residence on Heather Drive was sprayed with red paint. A drawing of male genitalia was spray painted on a stone wall at the residence and on the road nearby. No formal report was filed.
• Sgt. Carol Ogrinc of the New Canaan Police Department said a total of eight mailboxes were reported to have been vandalized with red spray paint on Heather Drive between Aug. 15 and 16.

On the west side of town, on the morning of Aug. 17 a Wascussue Court resident reported that four mailboxes on the lane had been smashed. 

Later that day, a resident sent an e-mail to neighbors in the Wascussue Court - Chichester Road area, alerting them to the damage.

“…sometime between 9:30 p.m. (last evening) and about 5:45 a.m. (this morning), somebody bashed in almost all of the mailboxes on Chichester Road and Wascussue Court,” she wrote. The writer said police had been notified. “The officer who arrived very promptly said that even worse vandalism had occurred during the night in another section of New Canaan.”

According to Ogrinc, the department did not receive any reports about damages on Chichester Road. A drive down Chichester did, in fact, show that many of the mailboxes had been smashed.

“It’s not unusual at all,” Ogrinc said. “It’s before school and the kids are getting restless.”