Repeat vandals trash, close mid school

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.