SALEM, Ore. — Residents spanning Salem are piecing together a string of vandalism incidents, some caught on home surveillance.
Videos show what appears to be a group of young people that has trashed holiday decorations, stolen decorations and thrown eggs at houses and vehicles before speeding away.
For Nathan Higginbotham in south Salem, the problem started about a week ago, on Nov. 20, when two people knocked down his Christmas light display in front of his home.
"It was the first day we had Christmas decorations up," Higginbotham said.
He didn't think much of this incident at first.
"Group of kids, just messing around," he thought.
However, the group returned Saturday night, this time knocking down and damaging more of the display.
Residents inside the home rushed out to chase the group as the youths drove away.
"Pretty violating," Higginbotham said.
"Crime in general has just gone up so much," said Cameron Mayner, a resident of northeast Salem.
Mayner's holiday display was also impacted. She described the group circling back to her home to rush off with an inflatable corgi lawn decoration.
"They really wanted the corgi," Mayner said. "My daughter literally just cried."
Another neighbor also got hit. Video shows the group pelting his home and vehicles with dozens of eggs.
Together, neighbors have compiled videos and information from social media to help police find the culprits. Higginbotham thinks the same group may behind other reports of similar vandalism around town Saturday evening.
"They're just going to continue this activity until they get caught," he said.
"It's just decorations, I can buy more," Mayner added. "But it means so much more to my kids...[The culprits] are not going to understand the consequences until they're older and they have their own families and [know] what it means to their children."