COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Cottonwood Heights police need the public’s help in finding whoever broke windows of four LDS Church buildings.
Police are asking people to be extra vigilant around the LDS chapel on 3455 East Bengal Blvd, which they believe is likely to be targeted by vandals Friday night or Saturday.
That’s because three other meeting houses on Bengal Blvd had their windows smashed this week alone. Another chapel in Cottonwood Heights suffered damage the first of June.
“It is frustrating that they’re hitting the churches like this. We’ve stepped up our patrols,” says Cottonwood Heights Police Lieutenant Dan Bartlett.
Officials say the suspects don’t appear to try to conceal themselves as the smashed windows were on the street side of the buildings in full view of the public. The church meeting houses on 2561 East Bengal, 2301 East Bengal and 2925 East Bengal Blvd were all hit this week. The latest is on Whitmore Way by the library.
“Starting on Monday, we’ve had one every single day. Someone has run up and thrown what appears to be a rock at some of the doors and the windows,” Bartlett says.
Whoever is smashing the glass seems to flee the scene as quickly as they approach it. Bartlett says they don’t believe the vandals are going inside, just breaking the doors, then leaving.
He adds, “It could be a sling shot, or someone could just throw it. We don’t know, yet. The only thing we’ve found are rocks.”
Police are asking the public to keep an eye on their neighborhood churches in the evening and nighttime hours.
(Contributing: Paul Nelson)
