Business Owners Plan To Leave Damaged Property Boarded Up Until Culprit Caught
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Boarded up windows in downtown Grand Prairie mark businesses struck by a vandal with a BB gun.
Grand Prairie Police say they've received 21 reports of windows being shot out along Main Street within the past four months.
It happens so often several businesses have stopped repairing the damage.
"You see here where I still have pieces of glass," said Millie Smith, the owner of Embroidery & Bling Boutique, pointing the shattered edges of her shop's now boarded-up front door.
She was furious last week when she found she'd been targeted again.
"What the 'bleep'? You know, like, really?" she recalls thinking.
In April, she replaced a shot-out window.
This time, she won't bother.
"I'm just going to let it go like that for a while until they catch the person," she said.
Down the block, the Main Street Barbershop hasn't repaired its windows, either.
"This is the first one that got shot out, and I replaced it, thinking it wasn't gonna keep on happening," said owner Alex Ramirez, pointing to a large floor to ceiling window. "About ten days later, the other one got shot out."
Most of the shootings seem to happen overnight, when no one is around to witness them, but at least one happened during business hours.
"My barber was right here cutting hair," said Ramirez. "Oh yeah, she was scared."
Police have added cameras along the street and released video of a suspect vehicle, an older model black Dodge dually pickup with chrome wheels and distinctive high intensity discharge headlights.
Ramirez says, he's ready for an arrest.
"We're all small business owners, you know. Every time you do something like that, that's $700 a window you need to replace," he said. "It's old already. I just want it to stop."
Crime Stoppers is offering up to a $1,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest.
