Vandals hit Oakwood car dealership and bank

Neel Chevrolet in Oakwood was vandalized this week. I was driving home from an entirely-too-long day at the Skate Plex in Tyler when I got stuck at the light in Oakwood. While (not too patiently) I was waiting my turn to turn, I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. The second truck in the lot facing Hwy 79 had a suspicious-looking substance all over the windshield and the hood. Bells went off in my head.

I grabbed my cell and called the dealership, then casually asked them if they had been vandalized. They replied, "Not that we know of. Why?".

Oh, how I hate to be the bearer of bad news. I told them about the truck and my suspicions. They rushed out to check. Sure enough, someone had EGGED the BRAND NEW TRUCK! Who knows how long that dried up, crusty gunk had been there, baking in the 100+ degrees?! Even I, who firmly believes the dirt on my car is what holds it together, knew this was bad.

Well, bad apparently went to worse... and real quick when they discovered there were actually multiple vehicles damaged. Ouch! The Neels are assuming someone vandalized the vehicles sometime over the weekend. This isn't the first time they've had to deal with hoodlums hitting them in one way or another. With limited targets in such a small town, they almost seemed used to it. The plan now is to send off the vehicles to be re-painted and then get them back out on the lot. In the meantime, it's back to business as usual for Neel Chevrolet.

A couple of weeks ago, vandals picked up an extremely large stone from the rock piles alongside the railroad tracks and hurled it through the picture window of the Oakwood State Bank. The window had to be boarded up until it could be replaced. Another incident required the window to be replaced again just days later.

There had been quite a lot of trouble at the Super Pantry as well. Vandals have repeatedly broken out the windows and the glass on the doors. The owners of the grocery store, the Rantala family, were forced to put bars on all of the doors and windows to protect their inventory.

The question remains... is this the beginning of a pattern?