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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Provo police seek public assistance to find vandals of a church meetinghouse.
- Vandalism included broken glass, damaged organ keys, and a flipped piano.
- Extensive damage reported; police reviewing surveillance footage to identify suspects.
PROVO — Provo police are asking for the public’s help in finding the person or people who vandalized a church meetinghouse.
The vandalism at a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 650 E. Stadium Avenue, was reported 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday. The vandalism is believed to have occurred sometime between 10 p.m. Monday and Tuesday afternoon.
A glass panel in the steeple that leads to the basement and chapel was broken, according to a Provo police report, which is how the vandals may have entered.
“Inside the chapel at the front of the podium area, the ground was littered with plastic pieces. Upon a closer look, it appeared the pieces were keys to the organ that had been broken off. Next to the organ, a piano was flipped upside down. Outside the chapel in the northeast hallway, a large picture of Jesus Christ had holes punctured around his face,” the report states.
Sinks in the women’s restroom were also damaged, as well as piping and the water faucets were all running, police stated, leaving the carpet area in the nursing room soaking wet.
Officers were then shown the boiler room, where there are control boxes for utilities.
“I found several control faces had been broken off of the control boxes. In addition, (church maintenance) discovered a lever had been pulled to turn off some of the water lines to the south end. On the walls where the control boxes (are located), were several stick figure drawings in pink marker,” according to the report.
Police looked at surveillance videos from the church and the neighboring Missionary Training Center in an effort to identify the vandals.
Investigators say the damage is “extensive” but did not have a dollar amount as of Wednesday evening.
Anyone with information about the vandalism can call police at 801-852-6210.
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