Police identify suspects in holiday crime spree

CNJ staff photo: Tony Bullocks Ollie Hall of Clovis points out plastic he applied to his Chevrolet Suburban as a temporary replacement for his rear window. Hall said it will cost about $375 to replace the window, one of at least 60 shot out during a holiday weekend crime spree.

Police have identified a group of teen suspects they believe shot out more than five dozen vehicle windows with BB guns over the holiday weekend.

The teens — one juvenile male, two adult males and an adult female — were detained in Farwell Friday night after an alert was put out with the description of the vehicle they were driving, Clovis police Lt. Jim Schoeffel said Monday.

Officers found BB guns in the center console of the vehicle and the teens admitted to shooting out vehicle windows in Clovis, Farwell and Bovina, he said.

The teens are not being identified because they have not yet been charged. Schoeffel said they are facing numerous counts of criminal damage.

“A lot of times when juveniles are out causing mischief, they don’t think about the economic impact of their actions and that every one of these victims is going to be out several hundred dollars,” Schoeffel said.

“It’s probably the worst time of the year for something like this to happen to these people.”

Police records show more than 60 reports starting Wednesday and stretching through the weekend with dispatchers continuing to receive reports Monday morning.

Schoeffel said the reports that are still coming in are likely from residents who were out of town for the holidays and discovered the damage upon their return home.

Jessie Hall said Wednesday morning she and her husband Ollie discovered the rear window of their Chevrolet Suburban shattered as they were preparing to go to the store.

Ollie Hall pulled out all the glass and covered the window with plastic until they can get it replaced.

Jessie Hall said the deductible on their insurance is $500 so they will have to pay out of pocket for the replacement glass.

“We know we’re going to have to fix it,” she said.

“We hate it that it happened. You know we didn’t need the expense.”

Hall said they were the only victims of the spree in their relatively quiet neighborhood.

“We couldn’t do anything about it. We got up in the morning and it was done,” she said.

The damage was dispersed throughout the community. Although much of it was concentrated in central Clovis neighborhoods, there were scattered reports in northern and southern neighborhoods as well, records show.