Vandals

Vandals desecrate Jewish cemetery Vandals knocked down 160 tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Northeast Baltimore late last week, police and cemetery officials said. Some of the grave markers in the B'nai Israel Cemetery, which is more than a century old, are 7 feet tall and weigh more than 1,000 pounds, said Neil Noble, co-manager of the cemetery at 3701 Southern Ave. The cemetery is operated by B'nai Israel synagogue on Lloyd Street. The damage is "painfully noticeable," said Noble, who is also synagogue vice president.

The broken tombstones and sunken graves at Ellsworth Cemetery are telling signs that the oldest black graveyard in Carroll County may not survive into the next century.The cemetery on Leidy Road near Route 140 in eastern Westminster dates back nearly 150 years and was for decades the only place where African-American families could bury their loved ones.Former slaves, veterans from both world wars and generations who have lent their names to roads and towns in Carroll are interred there.The names Elders, Shipley, Bruce and Warfield belong to families whose members are buried at Ellsworth.

Howard County police believe the same gang of vandals who slashed tires on more than three dozen cars over the weekend also is responsible for a fire in a kindergarten classroom at Deep Run Elementary that caused more than $25,000 in water and soot damage.As police looked for the vandals who early Sunday slashed the tires on 41 cars in the Sherwood Crossing apartment complex and in the Deep Run Mobile Home Park, a team of parents and school workers sifted through burned-out debris in the kindergarten room.

BALTIMORE County police are concerned about a simmering neighborhood feud in Middle River involving residents who fought a NASCAR speedway, a project that has moved to Anne Arundel County. They should be.Though vicious acts of vandalism, which police say seem to be targeted at speedway opponents, have abated since late March, palpable tension in the community remains.No suspects have been apprehended. Some residents say they have armed themselves and are seeking the alleged tormentors. The potential for disaster is obvious.

Graffiti vandals wielding spray cans of paint may be forced to tote spray bottles of industrial cleaner instead if city police catch them hanging their "tags" in Baltimore.Tags -- the trademark initials incorporated into a design -- have been landing the artists 400 to 800 hours each of scrubbing off or painting over graffiti on walls, signs, mailboxes, bus shelters, doorsteps and other vulnerable surfaces.City officials and neighborhood representatives said they hope the cleanup detail makes the spray can slingers realize that buildings and bridges are not canvases, but belong to neighborhoods where people live and work.

For three decades, Myrtle and William Wright enjoyed a tranquil life along Bird River Road in eastern Baltimore County's countryside.But then came the midnight riders.In what police strongly suspect is retaliation against residents who successfully fought a proposed NASCAR speedway near their homes, vandals have made death threats, destroyed lawns and wrecked mailboxes along the peaceful two-lane road bordering White Marsh and Middle River.In one incident, vandals killed a family's pet rabbit and stole 10 others from an outdoor pen. On another night, someone threw two dead cats on the front lawn of a Bird River Road resident with small children.

Beulah Wilbur goes home today.More than three years after her West Baltimore rowhouse was damaged by fire and stripped bare by rogues and vandals, the Baltimore crossing guard will move back to the place she had lived since 1962."

Just weeks before an African-American woman was scheduled to move into her first house, built in Taneytown with the help of an interfaith group, vandals marred its walls and appliances with racial and pornographic slurs.Karen Magruder, 29, said yesterday she discovered the damage about 1 p.m. Monday. She had gone to the house in the 200 block of Maryland Ave. with her three children and a friend to complete a few finishing touches before moving in."At first I was surprised and shocked. Then I was numb for a while," said Magruder, who spent about eight months building the four-bedroom colonial with the help of Interfaith Housing of Western Maryland Inc., a nonprofit group with 17 affordable housing projects from Garrett to Carroll counties.

After a two-month respite, vandals have again struck at newly constructed houses in northern Howard County, breaking pipes and causing severe flooding, police said.On Sunday or Monday, vandals entered three homes in the 8700 block of Stonehouse Drive and broke the water pipes, police said."It is probably the same people" who vandalized at least 14 houses this summer, said Sgt. Morris Carroll, a police spokesman.Police also reported that arson fires late Thursday damaged four townhouses in the 6800 block of Sanctuary Court in Elkridge.

Several residents of Ellicott City's Allenford neighborhood woke up Sunday to find that vandals had destroyed a dozen mailboxes along Green Clover Drive.Police received a 911 call about 3: 30 a.m. Sunday when a resident saw two or three people walking along the 10000 block of Green Clover, knocking over mailboxes, possibly with a baseball bat or tire iron, Sgt. Tara Ball, a police spokeswoman, said yesterday.Police discovered 12 mailboxes had been knocked over, Ball said. She said police were unable to get a detailed description of the vandals.

A Howard County restaurant that was vandalized last month in an apparent protest against the serving of foie gras has been hit again. Steve Wecker, co-owner of the Iron Bridge Wine Company in Columbia, said Monday that no references were made this time to foie gras. But Wecker suspects that the vandals who broke a window and damaged one of the front doors of the Route 108 property were trying to convey the same message as those who spray-painted "Get rid of the foie gras" while breaking several windows and gluing the lock of the front door March 23. No one has been charged in that incident, police said Since the first incident, which caused an estimated $3,300 in damage, Wecker has added "Foie Gras Friday" to the restaurant's menu and has servers wearing T-shirts reading "Got Foie Gras?"

Vandals gained access to two construction loaders that were parked behind a Glen Burnie fraternal lodge Friday night or yesterday morning, then flipped over vehicles, destroyed equipment, mangled a fence surrounding a baseball field and smashed open a back wall of the lodge. The owners of two businesses that stored equipment and vehicles in the back parking lot of the Glen Burnie Moose Lodge No. 1456 said they suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses as a result of the vandalism.

ABOARD R/V BAY COMMITMENT - Shot up and left for dead three months ago, the bright yellow buoy took just a few minutes yesterday to get its bearings and begin transmitting from the mouth of the Patapsco River. The $120,000 "smart buoy," part of the John Smith National Historic Water Trail, was badly damaged July 26, when vandals armed with a .22-caliber rifle blasted holes in the solar panels, the navigational light and electronic gear - more than 20 shots in all. The buoy, a year old, was hauled from the water for repairs in early August.

The Rev. Sarah Dorrance planned to preach last Sunday about hospitality. But when the pastor at Taylorsville United Methodist Church in Carroll County entered the church that morning, she discovered that vandals had struck, destroying office equipment, damaging the sanctuary ceiling and spraying fire extinguisher fluid everywhere. Sunday's incident marked the fourth time in recent weeks that the white wood-frame church near Mount Airy was hit, but this one was the worst. "I knew I had to change the sermon," Dorrance said.

As a pickup line, "I'm Joba Chamberlain" certainly beats "I've lost my number; can I have yours?" And, according to a young man who apparently enjoyed a fruitful summer on the Jersey Shore, the pitcher's pitch helped him hit home runs. Ryan Ward, a 29-year-old unemployed resident of Asbury Park, bears a resemblance to the New York Yankees' pitcher. So he started telling people that's who he was. To hear him tell it - to the New York Post, no less - it was great to be young and a pretend Yankee, especially when it came to women.

Joy Sushinsky is not your average busybody. She is not the type of person who peeks at neighbors from behind her curtains and gossips about their activities. Instead, Sushinsky, a soft-spoken, 28-year-old homeowner on one of Hampden's few troublesome blocks, has become - somewhat reluctantly - a driven neighborhood activist, a watchdog with a purpose higher than mere curiosity. Upset by the aimless, belligerent teenagers and low-level drug dealers who congregate on Elm Avenue and a tiny park there, occasionally harassing residents and committing random acts of vandalism, Sushinsky has strong-armed city officials, the Baltimore Police Department and various community groups into doing something about it. But it has taken three years, she said, and the battle is far from over.

Harford County : Bel Air Fifth firebomb attack since August The state fire marshal is investigating a firebomb thrown at a Bel Air home about 2:30 a.m. Sunday. The device, which caused structural damage but no injuries, was tossed in the 2000 block of Robertson Road, said Joseph G. Zurolo Jr., deputy state fire marshal. Five firebombings have occurred in Harford County since August. The owner of the house, William Cox, extinguished the flames Sunday. Damage was estimated at $4,000. Lynn Anderson Howard County : Clarksville Vandals hit homes, cars on nine streets Howard County police said yesterday that they were searching for a man who was seen near one of 16 vehicles and several homes that were vandalized on nine Clarksville streets before dawn Friday.

There was no rest for the dead at B'nai Israel Cemetery. Relatives of the interred, their heads bowed, some wiping away tears, walked slowly though their family plots yesterday at the venerable burial ground in Northeast Baltimore, grimly taking stock of the damage done by vandals to more than 150 tombstones: many knocked to the ground, some split in half. "It's the second time they've busted my father's tombstone," said Harold Postol, eyes brimming with sorrow, his cheeks glistening on the cold, sunny morning.

Vandals desecrate Jewish cemetery Vandals knocked down 160 tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Northeast Baltimore late last week, police and cemetery officials said. Some of the grave markers in the B'nai Israel Cemetery, which is more than a century old, are 7 feet tall and weigh more than 1,000 pounds, said Neil Noble, co-manager of the cemetery at 3701 Southern Ave. The cemetery is operated by B'nai Israel synagogue on Lloyd Street. The damage is "painfully noticeable," said Noble, who is also synagogue vice president.

Vandals defaced the interiors of two unoccupied Laurel homes with anti-Semitic and racially biased symbols and words over the weekend, according to Howard County police. Police do not believe the homes' owners, who were living overseas at the time of the crimes, were targeted, although they are minorities, said Pfc. Jennifer Reidy, a spokeswoman for the department. Vandals broke into the houses in the 9600 block of Washington Ave. and "splashed paint throughout the house," Reidy said.