(SIOUX CITY, IA) Sioux City sidewalks are missing a staple of downtown streets. Thousands of dollars worth of parking meters have been pulled clear out of the ground, and no one knows why.
Sioux City's parking supervisor says they started finding damaged parking meters sometime in the last weekend of March and they've been finding them ever since in alleyways and dumpsters. But, is it for the money, or just for the thrill? Monette Harbeck, Sioux City's Parking Supervisor says she can't understand why anyone would waste their time pulling out meters.
"They're in concrete; they're bolted down with pretty good sized bolts," she said.
Harbeck says the cash inside one of these machines isn't worth the efforts it takes to get it out of the ground; on an average day, less than a hundred bucks.
"Somebody will tell someone something, and they will get caught. I don't know. Like I said, I don't know if it's an act of vandalism, or if they're doing it for the money but you can't keep getting money out of parking meters and somebody not being suspicious of you coming into a place and turning in huge amounts of coins. So we'll see," she said.
One of the strange things about one of the locations where a meter was ripped out of the ground, is that it's only one block away from the Sioux City Police Department. Sioux City residents like Debby Spencer and Pattie Hoover don't take lightly to vandals. What would they say to this vandal?
"They better not do it in front of me, cause I would approach them, I wouldn't think twice about telling them their in the wrong, and maybe even get on the phone and call 911. That's probably what I would do is get on the phone and call 911, and say hey, there's somebody out here, cause I'd think they're crazy and who knows what they would do," they said.
49 meters have been damaged so far, and each costs between 300-500 dollars. City officials are working closely with the Sioux City Police Department to find out who this culprit is and stop the vandalism now. If you have any information, police are asking you call Crime Stoppers. That number is 712-258-TIPS.
