Disturbed by holiday vandalism | Federal Way letters

Published 10:43 am Friday, October 23, 2009

I found it very interesting that vandals had destroyed Mr. Stansbury’s Halloween decorations on Oct. 18. I live on the 400 block of 316th Place, and between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. that night, I also had my Halloween decorations destroyed. Like Mr. Stansbury, I do not have young children, as mine have grown and have families of their own.

However, for the past seven years, I have decorated my home and passed out candy for the children of my neighborhood. I have three large Airblown decorations that are very expensive to purchase, ranging from $80 to $120 each, and the vandals cut them up. I have since repaired them.

Like Mr. Stansbury, I was not sure that I wanted to continue decorating. I have replaced them in my yard and hope that they will not be further vandalized. I also have concerns about the decorating that I do at Christmas, as I have eight of the Airblown decorations that I put out, and would find it very expensive to have them cut up and destroyed.

I reported it to the police, but found little satisfaction from the fact that they will not even come to your home unless there is more than $1,500 in damage. It seems to me that this is a pattern of vandalism taking place. I would hope that at least the police would provide more of a presence in our neighborhoods.

Gary Carlisle, Federal Way