Vandals cause havoc

By Sarah Schwager
POLICE are investigating a wave of vandalism which has struck Cranbourne and potentially endangered lives.
Stray bullets, carving knives and anti-Semitic messages are among the more serious of the incidents into which police have been looking over the past week.
Another vandalism incident cut out telecommunications at Centro Cranbourne Shopping Centre.
Detective Sergeant Larry Grimshaw from Cranbourne CIU said the damage caused over the past week was extreme and police were doing their best to investigate.
“They seem to be pure random acts of vandalism rather than related to a burglary and none of them appear to be connected,” he said.
Police were called to a display home in Cranbourne North late last week after a bullet was found in an upstairs room.
Between 6pm last Thursday and 10am on Friday someone shot a 22-calibre bullet from the street through a top window. Police found a mirror had also been smashed and the squashed bullet was located on the floor of the Heartford Court property.
Last Thursday morning greenskeeepers at Cranbourne Golf Club were horrified to find a swastika and ‘KKK’ carved into the fourth green.
Police are still investigating whether the destruction at the historic Jewish golf club was racially or religiously motivated.
Police were again called out to the club on Saturday after someone cut a hole in a cyclone fence at the rear of the club, pulled out the flag – again on the fourth green – and stabbed holes in the grass.
A house under construction at Fairhaven Boulevard in Cranbourne was vandalised over the weekend.
Someone kicked in the front door of the house, punched 20 holes in the plaster walls, smashed a front window and started a fire in the back bedroom, causing $1000 damage.
Police said luckily the fire, which was started with wood and newspaper, was contained to the bedroom.
On Tuesday 18 September, a man was seen walking along the South Gippsland Highway near the intersection of Waverley Park Drive in Cranbourne North with a 30cm carving knife tucked in to the back of his belt.
Police had to pull their firearms to disarm the man.
They are still determining what the man was planning to do with the knife.
On Wednesday 19 September, cords and cables connecting Centro Cranbourne Shopping Centre’s phone, fax and Internet lines were cut.
Police said someone made their way into a manhole behind the taxi rank near the post office and cut two plastic cables, each containing 300 communication lines, causing the lines at the centre to crash.
Det Sgt Grimshaw said phone lines were often cut before a burglary, but this was not the case this time as the incident happened about 5pm while the shops were still open.
Anyone with information about the above incidents is urged to call Cranbourne CIU on 5991 0661 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.