Last week Memorial Union’s lakefront, home to the Outdoor Rentals Office and Hoofers’ clubs and equipment, experienced its fourth act in a string of vandalism, break-ins and burglaries in the last two weeks, prompting discussion about increased safety measures.
According to Hoofer Council President Jen Limbach, in the past two weeks graffiti covered lakefront buildings and equipment four times, the Outdoor Rentals and Hoofers’ lake lab buildings were broken into three times, Hoofers’ sailboards damaged twice, a fire lit once and a suspect found – never.
During these incidents, suspects incurred damage to buildings and equipment and stole six marine radios, snacks, candy and pirate flags, she said. Because of the latter three items Limbach said she thinks juveniles are responsible for the damages.
The most recent incident happened sometime between last Thursday night and early Friday morning when a suspect smashed open a window to the Outdoor Rentals Office, entered the building and left with several items, UW Police Department Detective Peter Grimyser said.
The suspect left crude language in graffiti on a garage door and boat, damaged a bulletin board and started a small fire near the lakefront’s rigging deck, Grimyser said.
Among the broken glass the suspect also left potentially incriminating evidence: Blood.
Police officers had already blocked off the lakefront area and were preserving evidence and cleaning up blood when sailing instructor Christopher Frye arrived at the lakefront around 9:30 a.m. Friday to teach a sailing lesson.
Frye said the blood occurred in splotches on the ground outside the Outdoor Rentals Office, pooling near the flag pole where the suspect – who had stolen the First Aid Kit – bandaged himself, Frye speculated.
As part of the ongoing investigation, Grimyser said he could not discuss details of the incident. He gave no information as to possible suspects, leads or motives for the incident.
Hoofer members and the Memorial Union are frustrated with the acts and have begun discussions with UWPD to implement increased security in the area, Limbach said.
“When you have volunteers putting in their own time to repair equipment and store it properly and it gets damaged like this… a lot of people take it personally,” she said.
While the vandalism has taken a financial toll on both parties, Limbach said the acts do not appear to be personal attacks against Hoofers or the Memorial Union because the graffiti did not mention either entity specifically.
