Vandals hit Modesto neighborhood twice in little more than a week

There was nothing funny about what residents of Melgren Lane in north Modesto woke up to on April Fools’ Day. At least seven vehicles on the street behind the Target shopping center on Sisk Road were marred with spray paint. A midmorning drive around the neighborhood turned up one more tagged car on nearby Vintage Drive.

Neighbors on Melgren noted that only cars parked on the street were vandalized, and the height at which the painting was done suggests the culprits were driving and riding in a car.

This was the second time in a little more than a week that vandals have targeted vehicles in the neighborhood. “I was out at 1 a.m. on the morning of the 24th and there were eggs all around,” said Frank Huggins. Vandals threw probably 50 eggs at vehicles parked through the loop of Melgren and Ararat and George avenues and north on Gagos Drive all the way to Pelandale Avenue, he said. Nearly every car outside was struck, he said.

“This will never be the same,” Huggins said, pointing to a missed spot of hardened egg residue on his son’s pickup truck. “Just four years ago, I paid $4,000 to have this painted. … There’s something about egg that damages paint.”

It’s the yolk, Darryl Roberts, a professor in the school of transportation at Centennial College in Toronto, said in a 2014 news report. “The yolk of the egg is the worst … it’s acidic and can eat through the clear coat and stain or damage the base coat.”

Huggins’ wife saw the vandalism when she was outside to leave for the gym about 8 a.m. The family has lived on Melgren for eight months, and the egging last week was the first vandalism they’ve experienced. Others who’ve lived on the street for the better part of a decade said the same.

Huggins said he hopes the acts aren’t the start of a trend. “What’s next, breaking windows, slashing tires?” he said.

A neighbor, who asked not to be named, said it’s one thing to paint on, say, a sound wall or a bridge, but it’s another to attack personal property of people who may not have the means to repair the damage.

Residents have no idea what time the vandalism occurred, because quietly driving down a street and spraying paint makes little noise. Huggins said he was up until about 2 a.m. but heard nothing. Another neighbor, Jose Suarez, said his dogs were barking a little before midnight, but he can’t be sure it was at the vandals.

Suarez used rubbing alcohol to remove some of the spray paint from his truck, but was leaving most of it to show police.

Without surveillance footage of the vandals – and Huggins said he and others plan to install cameras – there’s little for police to go on.

Lighting and cameras are a strong defense any neighborhood can have against vandalism, theft and other crime, said Modesto Police Department spokeswoman Heather Graves.

“Lighting is huge – making sure neighbors have lights on, especially with motion detectors,” she said. Such a light that illuminates the driveway is more effective than just a porch light. Keeping shrubbery low also eliminates hiding spots for criminals, she said.

When buying security cameras, Graves said, people need to make sure they work well in the dark. “And along with them, we suggest getting the knowledge on how to use them,” she said. “This applies to both businesses and homes. People often don’t know how to work the cameras, to retrieve data. They may have good images in the camera but no idea how to get them to us. We often have to shoot a picture of an image on a (camera) screen, which really lessens quality of the image. Knowing how to work it is key.”

Quality images of people doing illegal activity can make a big difference in investigations, Graves said. “When we put stuff out (in news releases and on social media) … often within 15 to 20 minutes we have people ID them.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 2:05 PM with the headline "Vandals hit Modesto neighborhood twice in little more than a week."