Vandals target Airdrie-area Church
BY BILL KAUFMANN,CALGARY SUN
25/8/2011
Mounties are hunting a group of offenders who vandalized a church nearing completion near Airdrie.
Sometime last weekend, the vandals smashed the glass doors of the St. Mina Coptic Orthodox Church, gaining entrance to the building just northeast of the Cross Iron Mills mall.
Once inside, they damaged drywall in several rooms and tipped over construction equipment in a rampage that caused an estimated $25,000 damage.
But RCMP Const. Robert Frizzell said the break-in isn’t being considered a hate crime.
“There’s no reason to believe anything was targeted religiously … there were no burning crosses,” he said.
“It’s just vandals — it appears they went from one end of the church to the other.”
It’s likely there was more than one offender due to the considerable weight of some of the equipment pushed over, said Frizzell.
Anyone with information on the offence is asked to call their local RCMP detachment or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
bill.kaufmann@sunmedia.ca
Twitter@SUNbillkaufmann
