Youth program affected after Dayton church van tires slashed

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

A Dayton church found broken windows and tires slashed on four of its vans from over the weekend.

The vandalism happened at Memorial United Church of Christ on East Fifth Street.

News Center 7's Monica Castro talked with church leaders about the affect this is having on children.

Since the recent vandalism, the church has put up signs that say “smile you are on camera” on the property.

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Robert Six, who has been with the church for several decades, believes someone threw a brick into the window.

“It’s a bad situation, it makes me so mad,” Six said. “To replace a window like that is going to cost thousands of dollars.”

In addition to the broken windows, the tires on four of the vans used for the Kids in New Directions program were also damaged.

“We came in yesterday and so apparently sometime over the weekend somebody cut the tires of the vans we use to pick up kids in the program,” said Aaron Kroggel, Kids in New Directions executive director.

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Having the damaged vans out of service affected more than 70 kids in the program.

“Some parents depend on our program and they were expecting their children to come here right after school. They come here for dinner, so they didn’t have dinner this week. It was sad,” Kroggel said.

Kroggel said a police report was filed and they’re hoping to get donations to pay for the repairs.

“It’s just really frustrating. We’re all looking for answers. It’s difficult to find those answer,” he said.

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