BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – Early Monday morning locals were concerned to see a vandalized storefront in downtown Beckley.
Beckley Councilman Robert Dunlap was the one to report the incident. He was bicycling downtown when he saw a broken window on a storefront on the corner of Piney Avenue and Prince Street.
He quickly contacted the Beckley Police and put out a Facebook post showing the damage. There was a metal rod lying on the sidewalk beneath the broken glass, and he says the vandalism must have happened just moments before he got there.
“It must have just happened because there was a rod still laying there and the destruction was pretty present.”
The culprit likely picked up a metal bar that was nearby and used it to smash the window multiple times. And business owners around the area say things like this are not good for development. Moving forward, Dunlap says he wants to see a community that takes action.
“The new businesses are going to run this rot out of town, but we all have to want it. We all have to come together to make sure downtown is policed by individuals as well as law enforcement.”
The storefront is currently empty, so the culprit didn’t even have a good reason to try and break in. The storefront’s owner and Dunlap are aware of a few cameras on neighboring buildings that may have caught the culprit in the act.
And Dunlap himself has had to deal with vandals on occasion, and he wishes to see these senseless acts of destruction stop.
“There’s little to say to someone who would create this destruction, they have nothing to gain. This is an empty business and it was previously a church. You can’t reason with a person who creates that type of damage and destruction.”
The Beckley Police are currently investigating and have taken the metal rod used in the crime for evidence. Anyone with any information on the crime should contact the police.
