Tulsa Police investigate over 30 cases of pellet gun vandalism

Monday, December 1st 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Someone shoots out dozens of windows in Tulsa. Tulsa Police say nearly 3-dozen people woke up Sunday morning to shattered car windows. As one officer said, the annual round of pointless pellet gun vandalism has begun.

News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright says Chuck Helm got up early Sunday morning to warm the van up for a trip to Oklahoma City, but when he noticed two of his windows shot out, the trip was off.

Now he's looking at $450 in repairs, at a time of year when he can least afford it. "We're raising our grandkids and we have one income, it's Christmas, it makes it tough.â€

Chuck isn't the only one with this problem. Lots of people in the 15th and Harvard area are in the same boat. Frieda Hale's window is missing from her car also. "My daughter came over and said, did you know your window is shot out? There was glass everywhere, inside and on the street, we had the car parked on the street."

3-dozen people must now check with their insurance, call a repairperson, come up with extra money, simply because someone drove up and down the streets in this neighborhood, shooting randomly at cars.

Chad Greer says his neighbors told him about the damage. "I don't know what can be done except tell police. If they are kids and it's random, it's pretty hard to track them. It's just a big inconvenience this time of year."

Police believe at least two people were involved; one to drive while the other did the shooting. If it is teenagers, they expect they've bragged about it to their friends and if that's the case, officers hope someone turns them in so this can be stopped from happening again.

Tulsa hasn't had much of this type of vandalism since last year when officers arrested a man in his 50's with a mental illness. They say he was responsible for shooting at hundreds of car and business windows.