From the Oroville Mercury-Register:
OROVILLE -- Sometime during the night Monday, someone entered two parking lots at Oroville Rescue Mission on Lincoln Avenue and cut more than two dozen tires on vehicles owned by the mission and people staying at its shelters.
"It's random violence," said Adrienne Hengel, who works for the mission. "We don't know who did it."
The Rev. Stephen Terry, executive director of the mission, said he first learned of the incident at about 6:40 a.m. Tuesday after a person staying there went out to his car to go to work and discovered he left front tire was flat.
When the man looked further, he discovered all four tires were destroyed.
The guest's car wasn't the only one struck -- seven other vehicles, including four belonging to other residents and two mission-owned vans and a truck -- also had slashed and flattened tires.
Twenty-six tires on eight vehicles were destroyed. Five cars had all four tires damaged. The mission's three vehicles, parked in front, each only had two flat tires.
No one at the mission is certain who did the deed, but there is a suspicion.
Terry said the tires were cut sometime between 9:30 p.m. Monday and 5 a.m. Tuesday. He said it may be related to an incident that occurred Monday night over a vehicle at the mission that a person may have wrongfully tried to sell.
Most of the vehicles vandalized belong to homeless people staying at the shelter. In some cases, those are their only possessions, Terry said.
"Slashing tires of people who can't afford to fix their vehicles, that's a moral outrage to me," he said. "A moral 'travesty' would be a better word."
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.