PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Halloween is less than a week away and while many neighborhoods are getting their homes spooky and ready for trick-or-treaters, some are seeing vandals strike in the middle of the night.
From Vancouver to Happy Valley, homeowners and their security cameras have spotted vandals running up to doors, doing everything from stealing or toppling decorations to crushing pumpkins — and police want to find those responsible.
It seems some in the Portland metro are fans of smashing pumpkins — not the rock band, but a string of vandalisms targeting Halloween decorations.
One East Vancouver family was just settling in for the night at their home in Summers Walk a couple of weeks ago when they heard a loud bang outside and got a doorbell camera notification.
“The alert showed there were kids in the front porch vandalizing our Halloween decorations so I ran downstairs and by the time I opened up the door, they had already jumped in a van and driven off,” said homeowner Sam Fetters, going on to add the vandals appeared to be teenagers and when he spoke with police, it seems his was the only home hit nearby. “I think there’s going to be many more cases reported in the next week or so. If the rains come, maybe it’ll keep some of this vandalism down.”
South in Happy Valley, more communities were hit early Monday by other Halloween grinches, or should we say, ghouls and goblins. Some reported a group of people seen on home surveillance vandalizing decorations at random homes near Scouters Mountain.
A video shared by the Happy Valley Police Department shows people picking the pumpkins up before smashing and throwing them at the home before driving off in an SUV. Another angle of that same home shows the masked vandals also targeting their doorbell camera and breaking it.
The homeowner who spoke to KOIN 6 says she has children at home, and it was terrifying having this happen just after 2 a.m. Monday — not knowing if the vandals would also break in or damage anything else.
We reached out to Vancouver PD about Fetters’ case but haven’t heard back. As for Happy Valley, their police are asking anyone with information about the four suspects caught on camera to please come forward and contact the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 503-723-4949 or online, referencing CCSO Case # 22-081011.