Spray-painting Damages Houses, Cars and Sidewalks in Point Beach

One or more spray-painting marauders sprayed 13 houses, cars and sidewalks in Point Beach in what was only one problem during a jam-packed, holiday weekend of numerous incidents of criminal mischief and arrests, police said Tuesday morning.

Police are asking for the public's help in tracking down one or more individuals who forced entry into at least three shreds and a detached garage, stealing bicycles and cans of spray paint.

"The suspect(s) then proceeded west through town, spray painting vehicles, houses and sidewalks," said Detective Patrick Petruzziello in a prepared statement. "The number of criminal mischief incidents that were reported was 13 and the damage was estimated to be in the thousands." 

An estimated time for the burglaries and spray-painting incidents is between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. Saturday. 

"The burglary and thefts occurred in the area of Seymour Avenue and the bulk of criminal mischief incidents occurred in the area of Woodland Avenue," Petruzziello said. "However, they were not limited to those streets.

"The actor(s) spray painted obscene and harassing phrases and illustrations," he said. "There was physical evidence collected from the scene. However, police are not disclosing what type of evidence was developed."

At this time there is no description of any possible suspects.

Assisting in the investigation is the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department Criminalistics Unit.

Anyone with any information is requested to contact the Point Beach Police Department at (732) 892-0500.

The public can either ask for the detective bureau or can dial ext. 199 to reach the tips hotline. Callers may be anonymous.

In general, police were extremely busy during the four-day weekend, including handling numerous arrests for disorderly behavior, simple assaults and thefts, Petruzziello said.

"The traffic and parking was very heavy, especially yesterday into last night, mostly due to fireworks," he said.

Police had expected to be busy, since it's been a busy season ever since Memorial Day weekend.

At the June 21 council meeting, Councilwoman Kristine Tooker, the council's liaison to the police department, said that since Memorial Day weekend, the amount of police calls has been the highest in the past 17 years.

She said the amount of noise outside her home on Seymour Avenue is creating more than a nuisance for her and her family.

"I haven't slept in four weekends, my grandmother is picking up glass bottles thrown in front of my house," she said. "I'm afraid for my family."

Ironically, Seymour is one of the streets where there were burglaries early Saturday morning.

Parkway resident Glen Paesano said at the June meeting that golf clubs and a few other items had recently been stolen from his car in his driveway.

"At first, I didn't care so much about the golf clubs," he told council. "But then I thought, what if my wife was out there someone was there."

Petruzziello has said that most of the calls have been for criminal mischief and disorderly conduct, but that the sheer high volume has created a busy workload for the department.