Vandals trash, close Gallup mid school

Vandals trash, close Gallup mid school

Vandals trash, close Gallup mid school

Vandals trash, close Gallup mid school

Vandals trash, close Gallup mid school

  • Latest Local News
Evening Webcast: May 25, 2013
Evening Webcast: May 25, 2013

Crystal Gutierrez and Chris Gilson with your evening headlines …

Traffic stop nets child-abuse-arrest
Traffic stop nets child-abuse-arrest

A routine traffic stop netted more than one officer bargained …

Mesa del Sol adds homebuyer incentives
Mesa del Sol adds homebuyer incentives

The Mesa del Sol development south of the Albuquerque Sunport …

Roundup targets meth, heroin dealers
Roundup targets meth, heroin dealers

Law officers in eastern New Mexico took down nearly a dozen …

Flooding, mean storms in eastern N.M.
Flooding, mean storms in eastern N.M.

The National Weather Service is warning of flood threat from a …

Advertisement

Repeat vandals trash, close mid school

Updated: Wednesday, 22 Feb 2012, 6:13 PM MST
Published : Wednesday, 22 Feb 2012, 6:13 PM MST

GALLUP, N.M. (KRQE) - The damage totals $30,000, but Gallup police think video from a security camera may lead them to the vandals who rampaged through a middle school overnight.

It's happened again and again in Gallup, but this overnight vandalism reached a new level.

The school was so trashed classes at Chief Manuelito Middle School were cancelled Wednesday, and there won't be school on Thursday, either.

"We don't want our kids to see this is because we know pretty much all of our students would feel the same way," Assistant Principal Dan Horsley said. "They'd be really upset at seeing what's happened to their school."

In the middle of the night security footage recorded at least four teenagers running up and down the halls using crowbars to smash windows in almost every room in the building.

Gallup police think they cut a hole through the back fence at 3 a.m. and waltzed right in.

It took only 20 minutes for the teens to cause approximately $30,000 worth of damage.

Along with windows, they also broke vending machines, projectors and stole money.

"There was a couple of desks that had cash in them for annual pictures," Sgt. Matt Wright of the Gallup Police Department said.

The kids were inside the computer lab but left thousands of dollars worth of equipment untouched, but they stole all the cans of compressed air they could get their hands on. The propellant in the cans can be used to get high.

"We've always had kind of this feeling it's not really our kids doing it, and I'm not quite sure who the kids are," Horsley said.

The school was hit two times earlier this month with the vandals leaving spray paint all over the walls.

Gallup High School next door was broken into last month and fires were set inside.

Police believe the same group of teens is responsible for all the break-ins.

The school is covered by state insurance, but it still has to shell its deductible, which is $25,000

"It's one less book, one less computer that we might be able to buy," Horsley said. The school is planning to reopen on Friday, he added.

Crime Stoppers in Gallup is offering a reward of up to $1,000 to anyone who leads police to the vandals.

Comment With KASA.com's commenting system, you don't need to register. You can login with an existing Facebook, Yahoo!, Google, or Twitter account and more. 
 

comments powered by Disqus

Enter the Hole-in-One Golf Contest

Just pick the golfers you think will finish 1st through 10th for each of the …

Enter the Auto Race Challenge Contest

Pick the 10 drivers you think will finish 1st through 10th for each race and …

Advertisement
  • Current Conditions - Statewide
Advertisement