By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
Parsons City Council, Parsons Chief of Police Kevin Keplinger updated the council on a series of targeted vandalism in the Long and Sherman area of the city. “Recently,” Keplinger said, “we’ve got a rash of car vandalisms happening around the Long and Sherman St. area.”
Keplinger informed the council that the attacks are happening during daylight hours. “It is the middle of the day that these seem to happen,” Keplinger said. “Nine, 10,11 o’clock during the day and we are seeing cars getting keyed.”
Keplinger said there has been a total of three attacks so far. One of the vehicles mentioned had damage done to it on two separate instances, according to Keplinger. “We’ve had three different cars – one car has been keyed twice and then two other cars have been keyed.”
63According to Keplinger, his department is doing surveillance in regards to enforcement of this issue. “We are doing surveillance. We’re doing some foot surveillance there and few other things trying to look. We haven’t, knock on wood, gotten anything in the last couple of days. So, we are going off of that.”
Keplinger said the vandalism appeared to be targeted attacks. “It appears to be targeted,” Keplinger said. “It seems to be that there is one specific target.”
Keplinger asked that anyone with information about the incidents contact his department. “But if anyone sees anything, please reach out to us and let us know,” Keplinger said. “It’s just like always, it will be anonymous. So it gives us something to go on, gives us some leads. So, we would greatly appreciate it.”
The Parsons Police Department can be reached at their office at 341 Second St Parsons, phone at 304-478-3060 or the department’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/parsonspd/. All respondents can remain anonymous. There has not been a reward issued for these incidents.