Vandals deflate school day

DINGMAN - A $1,000 reward is now being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a late night vandal who deflated the tires to 24 Krise buses on the Dingman Delaware Middle School campus on Monday. By the time the vandalism was found by custodial staff, the damage was too extensive to fix in time to get the school buses operational on schedule, said Barbara Hufnagel, operations manager at Krise. All Delaware Valley schools, which were already on a two-hour delay, were closed for the day. The State Police were still involved in the investigation as of late Monday afternoon. According to the director of Support Services for the school district, Marvin Eversdyke, footprints were found that ran across the street to a business where, presumably, a getaway car was parked. Though there were no external cameras on the middle school campus that could have captured the act, the state police will be examining the cameras located outside of the business. There was no permanent damage to the buses or tires, and Hufnagel said that all the buses were tested to make sure no additional damage resulted from the buses resting on their front rims. A Krise mechanic said the valve stems on the tires were unscrewed halfway, letting the air escape. Though a special tool is needed for this operation, such devices are sold in stores. A pocket screwdriver would also do the job, he said. The perpetrator made off with all of the caps. This incident was the second one of its kind in three years. The first incident was a senior prank that occurred on a warm, sunny day. This time, Krise staff are not so sure it was a prank. “In this kind of weather you have to be pretty dedicated to go up there and do that,” Hufnagel said. “There is more of a suspicion that this might be someone trying to cause us some harm.” Hufnagel said that extra security measures are now being taken to prevent this from happening again.