Senseless vandalism
Highland Arts Theatre has been a targeted multiple times
“That was scary, man. All you heard was crash, bam! I jumped in my chair.”
Ali MacDougall, box office director at the Highland Arts Theatre, explains what it was like to have vandals break a window in her office with a rock on Tuesday afternoon.
“Someone was on the phone to buy tickets and I could hear them, the kids outside. It was after school and they weren’t the usual kids who come around. They were using really foul language. I peeked out at them. They were all wearing hats.
“I heard them come in and say ‘look at the f’n clown.’ We have a poster of Bixby the clown up. Then I heard them go out around the corner and everything was quiet. Until they threw that rock through the window.”
The rock broke through the first pane of glass, luckily not through both panes and into her office. However, this isn’t the first time the venue has been a target.
“A few weeks ago, not even a month ago, they broke a window on the other building we own, across the alley,” she says. Crossroads has their office in the basement of that building.
“There’s graffiti, mostly tags. And the broken windows,” she lists off damage she’s seen over the years.
“Sometimes we’ll find things from the night before. We’ll find needles and garbage and condoms and empty booze bottles. And it’s through the week. Not on the weekend.”
MacDougall says the youth she saw that day were between the ages of 13-15 and weren’t the kids she usually sees hanging around.
“The skateboarders that come around are great kids,” she says. A roller derby player, MacDougall says she chats with them about skating.
“I tell them about my skates and how we go to skate parks to practise and they tell me about the ones they like. They’re great kids.”
What amazes MacDougall is the youth committing the vandalism often do it in the daytime.
“To do that in broad daylight, it’s just crazy,” she shakes her head. “What is the purpose of breaking a window? What does it do? It only scares me and gives my boss something else he has to fix and spend money on.”
MacDougall isn’t worried about her safety at work and thinks little can be done to stop the vandals.
“What can you do about it? I mean they’re kids. You can’t have a parent with them 24 hours a day.”
Desiree Vassallo, spokesperson for the Cape Breton Regional Police, says there is something you can do about it.
“Report it to us, as soon as possible to the time it occurred,” she says. “It gives us time to hopefully catch someone.
“I know sometimes you can’t report it when it is happening but when you can, please do. And if you can’t report it while it’s happening still report it.
“In situations like this, where there are multiple incidents, we can put some extra resources out there. Like maybe some extra officers to patrol the area.”
If you want to report a crime and remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers at 1-800-5628477.