Midway Boulevard businesses hit by BB guns

Two businesses on Midway Boulevard were vandalized with BB guns over the weekend.

Two businesses on Midway Boulevard were vandalized with BB guns over the weekend.

Martin’s Auto Electric was shot at Saturday afternoon. BBs left a hole in one of the windows and shattered panes of glass at the front of the building.

“I got a phone call that the windows were shattered,” said Steve Abrahamse, one of the owners of Martin’s Auto Electric. “(I) called the police, they showed up, found a BB laying on the ground.”

Abrahamse said he received the call sometime mid-afternoon.

It was strange that the vandalism occurred during the day, said Jennifer Yzaguirre, an officer with the Oak Harbor Police Department.

Similar events have been happening every few weeks, including paintball damage done to cars and lawn ornaments over the summer, Yzaguirre said.

Those incidents usually happened at night, she said.

“It’s real easy to shoot a car and just drive away,” Yzaguirre said.

Oak Harbor police have no leads or suspect vehicles at this time.

Michael Salmons said his truck was shot at between 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday morning.

“We get there about 7 in the morning, and we come to see there’s this nice little hole in the rear passenger window,” Salmons said.

The truck, used by Lourdes Asian store on Midway Boulevard, was packed with care packages that were going to be sent to the Philippines. Salmons said he was planning to take the packages to Seattle for delivery on Saturday.

At first, he said he thought someone tried to break into the car to steal the boxes.

A BB was found at the scene, however.

Salmons said he was told these BB shootings happened a lot over the summer, but they weren’t expected to continue after school started.

“It’s irritating that kids just go off and damage people’s property,” Salmons said. “There’s a lot of ways to keep yourself entertained. When you got to go blow up people’s stuff, it’s kind of messed up.”

Salmons said the police told him they expected that his was probably the first of many calls about BB gun damage over the weekend.

Oak Harbor Police Chief Ed Green said he doesn’t think these shootings will continue.

“It appears that it was just a one-time incident, maybe two,” Green said. “We had a truck get damaged, we had a business get damaged.

“I didn’t find a pattern.”

Green said he encourages anyone with any information about the vandalism to contact the police department.

Anyone with information about these or other crimes, call the Oak Harbor Police Department at 360-279-4600.