Montgomery County police have announceda reward and prevention training following the latest incident in a string of vandalism and hate crimes against churches and schools.
Montgomery County Crime Solvers is offering a $1,000 reward for information about a fire on the night of April 16 that severely damaged three buses parked in Rockville.
The buses, belonging to Bethesda’s French International School, were parked at the Mid-Pike Plaza on Rockville Pike near Montrose Road, said Pete Piringer, a fire department spokesman. No one was injured in the fire but the damage is estimated at about $150,000. Fire investigators believe someone intentionally set a fire in one of the buses. There was some vandalism inside other buses nearby, and a fourth bus was damaged by the heat of the blaze. This is not the first time a private organization has had its buses attacked. In January, vandals broke 20 bus windows out of eight vehicles belonging to the Jewish Council for the Aging. The buses were parked in a lot off Wyaconda Road in Rockville when their windows were broken by stones from the nearby railroad tracks, according to the council. Six of those vehicles could not be used again without extensive repairs.
The council estimated the damage at $100,000, with one bus damaged beyond repair. A rash of vandalism and graffiti attacks in Gaithersburg, Germantown and Boyds, also in January, targeted two churches, two public schools and the site of a historic black school. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services organized a seminar last week to educate religious institutions on how to prevent such crimes. A second seminar will be held May 1. “We talked about security and protection in places of worship,” Piringer said. “The community has to take some action to protect itself and to develop internal and external security to prevent vandalism.”
