Astoria Express Transit owner says kids keep breaking in and vandalizing her buses after school
NEW YORK - In a bus yard in Astoria, security camera footage shows the moment when vandals behind the wheel ram a school bus into another. The owner says this wasn't the first time this group of minors broke into their lot to inflict damage, and it won't be the last.
The damaged buses belong to Gail Gualotuna. Astoria Express Transit is her family's small business. Her parents, immigrants from Ecuador, saved up to start the school bus service in the 1980s.
Gualotuna says the young vandals have come back again and again, mostly after school hours, causing repeated destruction that has cost her business about $100,000.
"It's just mirrors broken, windows, battery box, motor, bumpers," she said. "I'm at jeopardy of actually having to close because of this."
The Astoria Merchants Business Improvement Program is a new initiative that aims to help. The NYPD has told Astoria shopkeepers that any returning vandals will be charged with trespass violations. But Gualotuna says this won't solve her problem due to the age of the perpetrators.
"It's just getting the same answers over and over again. 'They're minors. This is the system. This is just how it is,'" she said.
Father and founder Luis Gualotuna says his heart is broken.
"Now, I am feeling too sad," he said.
The family has started a GoFundMe campaign to try to make up some of the costs. It might not be enough.
"We've been in this community for so long. I expect more," Gail Gualotuna said.
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