News - Night of Mischief

Unfortunately they have also been the target of a series of attacks by vandals over the years and early Tuesday the Roohan Realty horse located outside the realtor’s Broadway office was vandalized for the third time since June.

This time, Tom Roohan, owner of Roohan Realty, was ready for the vandals when a video camera he installed after the previous attacks caught three young adults kicking the horse for a period of 15-20 minutes.

On the surveillance tape, two men and a woman can be seen repeatedly kicking the hind legs of the $6,500 fiberglass horse – stopping only when oncoming traffic approached them. After they beat on the horse for an extended period of time, one of the men in the video could be seen twisting one of the legs until it completely broke off in his hand. The trio then crossed the street and escaped unnoticed.

The horse was discovered by a Department of Public Works employee who reported his finding to police around 4 a.m.

After an incident in June when the statues’ back legs were damaged, Bonacio Construction repaired the fiberglass horse with a high strength epoxy and reinforced the legs with iron rods, said Ed Stanos, an employee of Loss Prevention Experts.

According to Stanos the video camera that caught the vandals on tape was installed about a week ago.

“It is very difficult to monitor all of these horses unless you publicize every one of them,” he said. “Since there are so many of them dispersed throughout the city it is almost not worth spending the money to monitor all of them because it will cost more than the damage often does.”

Sgt. John Catone of the Saratoga Springs Police Investigation Division said investigators are currently in the process of investigating the case and analyzing the video for clues that they hope will lead to the vandals’ arrest. The vandals could potentially face felony charges if the cost to fix the horse amounts to more than $250.

Catone said that ever since the horses were introduced to the city they have had at least one occurrence of vandalism per year. In 2002, one of the horses was stolen from in front of Saratoga Arms on Broadway. The horse was eventually found floating in the Schoharie Creek and returned to the city by a group of tourist who spotted the horse while kayaking.

This was just one case of vandalism in a series of incidents that recently took place in the Spa City. Jeff Reardon, owner of Compliments to the Chef, said around 10-20 lawns including his own were vandalized the same night as the Roohan horse in the McGregor Links neighborhood of Wilton.

“At first I thought it was personal, but then I started driving around the neighborhood and realized that the same thing had happened to other people’s lawns,” he said.

Reardon said the damage was very distressing to him and his neighbors.

“You work so hard on your lawn and then one night for no apparent reason someone comes and ruins it,” he said.

A sign belonging to realtor Chad Perkins along Rt. 9 in Wilton was also vandalized Tuesday after vandals spray painted the sign with a theme from the newest Batman movie. The perpetrator painted the picture of Perkins on the sign with two black circles around each eye along with a big red smile to make him look like the Joker. It also had one of the Joker’s phrases written next to his face that read, ‘why so serious?’

Sgt. Catone said he does not believe any of the incidents are connected.

One case of vandalism that was solved occurred on Wednesday when a man was arrested around 2:25 p.m. on Union Ave. after slashing the tires of a Dodge Van in Bruno’s parking lot. He was charged with fourth degree criminal mischief, a class A-misdemeanor.