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Police seek public’s help in locating Santaquin vandals

Posted at 10:11 PM, Feb 28, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-01 00:35:58-05

SANTAQUIN, Utah – Police seek the public’s help in locating those responsible for vandalism at Santaquin City's baseball fields, leaving hundreds of dollars in damages.

Various words, pictures and profane things are now scattered across two dugouts at the baseball fields.

Santaquin Police found out about the graffiti Thursday morning but said it isn’t the only case.

Last Friday they received word from one resident whose white fence sported a black spray-painted peace sign next to the numbers “420.”

A resident who lives a few doors down had the passenger side of his truck tagged, the word “gang” could be seen in black spray-paint alongside white spray-painted shapes.

“When it happens to you, you feel like you’ve been violated,” Shawn Miller, standing in front of an overly shiny spot on his freshly cleaned fence.

The recent string of vandalism has left a number of Santaquin residents upset.

“There’s a lot of people that are really mad about it,” said Miller. “It’s not a barn out in the middle of nowhere, I mean it’s a neighborhood and it’s my house, it’s his vehicle, it’s our baseball diamond.”

Shawn first saw the graffiti on his fence last Saturday.

“I was mad, I was incredibly mad,” said Miller. “We work hard for what we have and having somebody do that, it can be frustrating.”

Santaquin Police do not know who did the spray-painting but said based on the images and words, they have an idea.

“It appears to be juveniles probably young adolescents between 12 and 15 years old,” said Corporal Rich Glenn with Santaquin City Police Department. “They’re just bored and they don’t have anything else to do so they think it’s fun."

Regardless of the taggers' motive, police aren’t amused — and neither is the homeowner.

“We take pride in our community keeping it beautiful and clean and that’s why we would deter kids from doing something like this,” Glenn said. “Find something more productive to do other than damaging other peoples’ property and making our community dirty.”

Police said this act of vandalism is considered criminal mischief, a misdemeanor charge.

Glenn said if those who did it choose to come forward, receive counseling and clean up their mess, they will not face charges.