Police suspect kids behind Karnes County Airport vandalism

Cars and planes spray-painted, windows busted, plane parts damaged

Kenedy – Believe it or not, the planes at Karnes County Airport didn't come with spray-painted nose art.

Kenedy police are looking for whoever vandalized and broke into several vehicles and planes at the airport the night of Jan. 25. The vandal -- or vandals, as police suspect -- caused at least thousands of dollars in damage by spray-painting, busting windows, puncturing tires and damaging airplane parts.

"Eventually they're going to get caught, and it's going to be an expensive art show that they committed," Detective Felix Casanova said.

All in all, four planes and seven vehicles were damaged, some of which were broken into. Casanova said it also appeared the vandals walked on some of the planes.

The vandals referenced Houston (H-Town) and a street gang in their graffiti, though police suspect it's just local kids acting tough.

"It's that they're going to want to be followers or want to make a name for themselves as well," Casanova said.

The majority of the graffiti still visible Tuesday was of cartoon faces and the juvenile go-to, male genitalia. As the detective and amateur art critic on the case, Casanova was unimpressed with the vandals' artistic abilities.

"I've seen better," he said.

There had been recent break-ins at the airport before this incident. Airport Manager Ron Hyde said because of safety concerns and planned updates to the airport, security upgrades were in the works before this happened.

"One thing is a big fence, an 8-foot fence. Another thing is security cameras and patrols -- upping the frequency, or increasing the frequency, of patrols," Hyde said.

Kenedy police are asking anybody who knows anything about this crime to call Crime Stoppers at 830-780-4636.


About the Author:

Garrett Brnger is a reporter with KSAT 12.