School Vandals Wreak Havoc; Decapitate Fish
POSTED: Monday, May 24, 2004
UPDATED: 11:54 am EDT May 25,2004
CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Police say vandals broke into Coral Gables High School this weekend and did about $50,000 worth of damage. They also say whoever did it was connected to the school.
"They obviously knew what they were doing because they went ahead and took care of our surveillance system," said Principal Dr. Alex Martinez. "They went into the media center, virtually destroyed every computer they came into contact with."
The vandals also destroyed the mainframe and server, stole petty cash and trashed security radios. Police say they spray painted graffiti and killed 50 fish, decapitating some of them with a paper cutter (pictured, right). In all, school officials say 14 classrooms and 20 offices were broken into.
"We have an active fish club. What they did to these poor fish. They decapitated a lot of the fish," Martinez said.
Police say the crime happened some time between 5 p.m. Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday morning. Police will be paying very close attention to who did not show up at school Monday, because someone had a very busy night.
Students at the school say they don't know who would have done such a thing.
School officials say they are in the process of taking an inventory to see just how much loss and damage there is.
School police are trying to salvage surveillance videotapes in hopes that the images might help identify the vandals. The cassettes were thrown into the aquariums.
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