Vandals Target Vehicles Used To Deliver Meals To Seniors In The Bronx
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Vandals have targeted a meals-for-seniors program in the Bronx.
Custom food delivery vehicles for shut-in seniors have been inexplicably vandalized in Westchester Square. They belong to the nonprofit group Regional Aid for Interim Needs (RAIN), and they have refrigerators and ovens to help with the much-needed meal deliveries.
In a locked and gated parking lot off Westchester Avenue, a tangle of detached bumpers and mirrors, gouged and crumbled bodywork, and keyed doors have people scratching their heads, CBS2's Lou Young reported.
"It happened Sunday night, and Monday morning we walked into eight vandalized vehicles," RAIN Director Ikuna Hasangjkhat said.
The vandals came in, started up one or more of the vehicles and rammed them into each other and concrete stanchions. Only vehicles bearing the RAIN logo were damaged. It was a targeted attack, Young reported.
"We're just trying to make sense of something that doesn't make sense. It's illogical," CEO Anderson Torres said.
It's not clear how the vandals started the vehicles or if they had keys.
The lot has security cameras, and police have the images but aren't talking – except to say they're still investigating.
Of the 20 vehicles used to deliver 1,600 meals a day, eight are damaged and two are undrivable. Some are making longer runs this week.
"Now it takes us a lot longer to deliver, but we've got to do what we've got to do," driver Julio Camacho said.
If the attack was meant as a message, the folks who run the organization aren't sure what it was.
The cost of repairs is currently estimated at $80,000.
The organization has since moved its remaining trucks to a new parking lot with enhanced security.
