CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — More than a dozen Chesterfield County school buses are now inoperable after two strings of vandalism left behind significant damage.
Detective Elwood Baldwin with Chesterfield County Police estimates thousands of dollars’ worth of damage was done to the 18 school buses that were housed on Courthouse Road between March 24 and March 27.
About a week later on April 3, more Chesterfield County school buses were vandalized in the same way, leaving behind even more damage.
Baldwin says the damage to the buses include fire extinguishers being removed and sprayed throughout the buses, first aid kits being dumped out, and windshields and driver side windows being broken.
Baldwin says that unfortunately he is all too familiar with this type of behavior.
“We have had situations where we have had school buses and police cars vandalized in the past,” he said.
Now police are trying to find out who is responsible for the vandalism, and are also working to prevent another incident like this from happening in the future.
“The biggest thing right now is trying to get an idea of possible suspects, so that we can of course bring them in, have interviews, and make an arrest in a case like this,” Baldwin said. “And then going forward looking for ways to prevent this from happening in the future.”
It is unknown how long the buses will be out of commission, but police say the school system has spare buses that they can use to temporarily replace the vehicles that were damaged.
Chesterfield Police are offering a reward for information about the vandalism. Anyone anyone with information should call 804-748-1251.
