Crime & Safety

Doylestown Lea Hit by Vandals

Police are asking anyone with information on the vandalism to the Doylestown Lea neighborhood to contact them.

Tuesday was National Night Out, but a Doylestown Township neighborhood wished one group of people had stayed in.

The group moved methodically through the Doylestown Lea neighborhood, smashing mailboxes or tearing them from the ground completely.

By the time it was all over, vandals had destroyed more than 45 mailboxes in the upscale neighborhood on Wells Road, not far from .

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Now, Doylestown Township Police are searching for the people who did it.

"It appears it was a group of kids," police Sgt. Donald Lawson told Doylestown Patch on Wednesday. "There's no evidence to suggest that it was anything more than that."

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Some of the mailboxes were damaged; others were ripped out of the ground and taken to other parts of the neighborhood, Lawson said.

In this exclusive neighborhood, where many homes cost $600,000 or more, mailboxes can cost anywhere from $100 to $300.

That would mean the vandals wreaked anywhere from $4,500 to $13,500 worth of damage - and maybe more, as more homeowners call police to report damage.

"It’s a shame. This is, unfortunately, a huge expense for the neighborhood," Lawson noted.

Lawson said the police believe the vandalism spree occurred before 3 a.m. early Wednesday morning. Surprisingly, he said, no one in the neigbhorhood reported hearing a thing.

Vandalism like this tends to come in spurts, the sergeant said.

"We may not have any for a month or so, and then we'll have a few" reports, he said.

Anyone who saw anything suspicious in the neighborhood or has any other information on the damage is asked to call Doylestown Township Police at 215-348-4201.

In June, the Doylestown Lea neighborhood was the scene of between an armed, off-duty New Jersy police officer and scores of police officers from across Central Bucks.

The neighborhood was locked down for about 12 hours, as police negotiated to try to get the suspect to come out of the home on Bittersweet Drive that he had shared with his estranged wife and two children. Richard Klementovich eventually surrendered.

He is currently being held in the awaiting trial on dozens of charges.


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