OCEAN CITY, Md.— A couple says their security camera caught someone vandalizing the front yard of their Ocean City home early Tuesday morning.
Homeowners Scott and Kristen Wittstadt, who reside primarily in Baltimore but vacation at the beach, said they are fed up with vandalism. The surveillance video shows an individual kicking at several shrubs while another person stands nearby.
"Ocean City isn't everybody's playground," Kristen said. "People can't just come down here and destroy private property; it's not fair to the homeowners and it's not fair to the other vacationers."
The Wittstadts hope technology will help to solve the crime.
"It's a little bit frightening, really, to see that that's how somebody could treat someone's property," Scott said. "No respect at all."
Some of the couple's neighbors sympathize.
"When people fix their house up and people come by and do vandalism like that, it's really a messy situation," Ronald Smith of Ocean City said.
The victims say they're offering a $1,000 reward for any information leading to conviction of the suspect.
"It's not so much about the value of the trees," Scott said. "It's the value of the lesson that we teach our children, what the neighbors around ocean city are dealing with on a daily basis. It's got to stop."
Ocean City police said they do not believe there has been a spike in vandalism this summer. Police said they have had only two reports for destruction of property on that street including the shrubbery incident and a damaged car side view mirror in the same time period.
