An unknown suspect intentionally damaged four vehicles parked in Lot N behind Hinman College’s Smith Hall Sunday morning, a Binghamton University official said.
Campus police estimate the total cost of damages ‘ which include smashed windows and taillights ‘ to be $1,075, said Investigator Dennis P. Bush of Binghamton’s New York State University Police. The cars were located near the east opening of the lot, near Mountainview College’s Hunter Hall. Three of the four vehicles were owned by students.
The incident is still under investigation, Bush said.
‘I cried,’ said one student, who wished to have her name and the make of her car left unidentified. ‘I just got my car fixed.’
The suspect smashed in the plastic back window of her car. ‘I don’t know if someone punched it or took a tool to it,’ she said. None of her belongings were stolen.
Another anonymous student got her car’s rear taillights and back-up lights smashed and rear bumper dented. The student was surprised that she never heard her alarm go off. The alarm won’t turn off ‘unless I go and press the button,’ she said. The student had parked her car in Lot N at 10 p.m. Saturday night.
The suspect smashed the rear taillight of a 21-year-old female student’s Honda Civic. And a 54-year-old non-student’s Oldsmobile Alero suffered the worst of the damages: its passenger side back seat window was smashed. Neither of these two owners could be reached for comment.
Police have no witnesses and there were no cameras located in the vicinity of the crime.
At least three Smith Hall residents were outside the southern entrance of the building ‘ in perfect view of the crime ‘ chatting and hanging out until 2 a.m. Sunday morning. They saw people dropping off and picking up passengers but no vandals, they said.
Of the five residents sleeping in a suite on the south side of Smith Hall’s third floor, not one of them reported hearing any smashing of glass during the night.
One of the residents, Karen Yee, a sophomore psychobiology major, saw activity at the scene at 10:20 a.m. Sunday morning. A plow and two members of the maintenance staff were cleaning up glass and police officers were investigating the scene, she said.
‘The cops and plow left before 11:40 a.m.,’ Yee said.