On the busiest shopping day of the year!!!

[bfez1]

Vandals stymie Lafayette retailers
04:59 PM CST on Friday, November 26, 2004


Associated Press



LAFAYETTE, La. — The busiest shopping day of the year turned out to be a sticky affair.


Vandals apparently glued the locks on dozens of Lafayette's biggest retailers, preventing managers from opening up promptly on lucrative "Black Friday." Hundreds of shoppers, some of whom arrived before dawn, were forced to wait outside Barnes & Noble, Old Navy and other stores while managers summoned locksmiths.


At least 200 locks on dozens of businesses were glued, including main entrances, rear doors and employee entrances, locksmith Garan Wilson said. Wilson's first job at about 5 a.m. Friday was to make his way to the front door lock at Old Navy – by pushing through about 500 shoppers waiting outside, he said.


"I found about a half a tube of glue stuck inside," he said.


Kevin Vizena, head locksmith for Pop-A-Lock in Lafayette, said the vandals squirted the glue deep inside the keyholes, forcing him to drill holes and remove the locks from the doors.


"We've never run into a day that's been quite so busy with these particular problems," Vizena said.


Chuck Trenchard, an employee of S&K Menswear, said the prank had cost his store more than $1,000 in business, because potential customers had arrived early, then took off because they couldn't get inside.


Most of the stores had their doors open for customers by midmorning, Vizena said.


Lafayette Police had no suspects but were investigating the vandalism as cases of possible criminal mischief or criminal damage to property, both misdemeanors, Lt. Angelo Iorio said.

Wonder if this affected BreinLa???

[Wnghs2007]

That has to suck. I hate people who do such stupid things like that.

[azsnowman]

Sounds like something WalMart would do "LOL!" Just kidding!

Seriously, it sounds to me like someone who has a sincere dislike for the all the commercialism of Christmas ~or~ maybe ELF (Earth Liberation Front)....talk about a bunch of WACKOS'!

Dennis

[streetsoldier]

Seems to me that, if the total value of damage exceeds $150, it should be a felony on 200 counts.

[SouthernWx]

It seems there are some folks nowadays who delight in doing anything in their power to disrupt the holiday plans of others...many times seemingly for the sheer hell of it

There was an incident at the lighting of the Rich's-Macy's great tree last evening here in Atlanta....several protesters who tried to ruin the evening for everyone by yelling loudly as Kenny Rogers sang "Oh Holy Night" (always the cue to turn on the Christmas lights). You could even hear the idiots "booing" loudly during the televised broadcast (apparently the idiots were from PETA...and were protesting the sale of fur coats at Rich's-Macy's

[CajunMama]

I can't believe someone was brazen enough to do that. These stores are on or right off of the two of the busiest roads in Lafayette. I heard about it at the football game tonight but didn't realize how many businesses were affected. Surely some of the stores had security video cameras and that will help catch whoever did it.