Toombs County Senior Center Vandalized

mrandolphadvance@gmail.com

The Toombs County Senior Center, which also houses Action Pact, located at 107 Old Airport Road, was ransacked on Saturday night, February 15, as vandals scattered files, notebooks, and other things throughout the Center’s offices.

Toombs County Action Pact and Senior Center Coordinator Pam Fountain said that she was relaxing in her home at around 11 p.m. on Saturday night, when a law enforcement officer arrived at her door to notify her that an officer completing a building check had noticed two Action Pact vehicles had been broken into at the Center’s parking lot. Fountain immediately went to the Center, where she said she was appalled at what she found.

“I noticed that Congressman Allen’s office and the seniors’ internet room was open, and that’s when we began to see what had occurred. They threw things out of drawers and scattered stuff everywhere,” Fountain explained. “The areas where the seniors congregate were not really messed up, but the offices and cars had things thrown out everywhere.”

Fountain said that all the drawers and cabinets had been opened in U.S. Congressman Allen’s local office, but she was not sure if anything was taken. In her survey of the Action Pact offices and vehicles, it seemed that very little was stolen – only around $70.

Many of the offices appeared to have been entered without damage to the doors or structure, but one office was even broken into by someone using a ladder from the facility to climb into the room from the ceiling.

“This is bigger than just vandalizing some property – you’re messing up people’s lives,” she emphasized. “We have now had to halt several of our operations to deal with this. We couldn’t deliver meals to the homebound seniors across the community, so now, those seniors are suffering because of someone else’s actions. We are also in the midst of our Low Income Heating Energy Assistance period and people are steadily coming in to get help to pay their utilities this is going to greatly affect those operations.”

The Vidalia Police Department is actively investigating the case. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Vidalia Police Department Investigative Services Division at (912) 537-4123 or CrimeStoppers at (912) 386-4480.

BREAKING INTO CARS – Officers first discovered that there had been a disturbance at the Toombs County Senior Center when they found the door open to one of the Toombs County Action Pact’s vehicles.Photo by Makaylee Randolph

CLIMBING OVER THE DOOR – Though many offices appear to have been entered without damaging the door or structure, one office was entered through the ceiling, as someone broke through drywall to enter on the other side.Photo by Makaylee Randolph