Cheri Faris caught the vandal on video surveillance but still doesn't know who he is.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON - REPORTER / iNFOnews.ca)

VERNON - An unusual vandal is making things difficult for a Vernon couple and their neighbours.

Cheri Faris and Bill Grahn say someone has been keying their vehicles and slashing their tires outside their home in the Foothills over the past year.

“We’re at five incidents. I just want to know why? What’s the deal?” Faris says. “It just sucks, I don’t know what else to say.”

Nothing is ever stolen, but the damage adds up, Faris says. A new paint job isn’t cheap, and neither are new tires — especially if they’re just going to get slashed again. Faris is also worried for her safety and her neighbours’ if someone unknowingly hopped in a car with slashed tires. That’s why she checks her tires every day.

After the vandalism started, Faris reached out to her neighbours and found out roughly six others had experienced similar incidents. What’s more, they had something in common.

“It’s only vehicles that are parked on the street,” she says.

Even though Foothills residents are allowed to park on the street as long as they move the vehicle every 48 hours — which Vernon bylaw confirmed — Faris thinks the mystery vandal is ticked off by their use of the road.

“If we’ve done something to upset him, I wish he’d just come and talk to us,” Faris says.

Vernon bylaw says it does get occasional complaints about on street parking, but normally only if it’s a car or RV that never gets moved.

Faris and her husband have done stakeouts to try and catch him in the act, but so far have only caught him on video surveillance. A recent video from Jan. 19 appears to show a man walk by at 4:30 a.m. and drag something across the full length of Faris’ car. The next day, she found a large scratch on the vehicle.

She’s reported every incident to the RCMP and given police the video, but because you can’t see the man’s face, there’s only so much they can do, Faris says.

She’s hoping someone might recognize the man, or at the very least be on the lookout for suspicious activity.

“The more people that know about it, the more people will be watching for it,” she says.

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