JACKSONVILLE, Ark. — Last week, things took an unexpected turn for the Jacksonville Senior Wellness and Activity Center, as the local non-profit organization discovered that someone had vandalized some of their buses.
"Somebody punctured a hole in the fuel tank on the vehicle to drain the gas out and then fill their gas cans," said Tanya Kopp, the Executive Director at the senior center.
Kopp also explained how this was not the first time something like this had happened.
"For a while, they were cutting the catalytic converters off of our larger buses and selling them at junkyards. So we built these metal boxes around the catalytic converter, so they were harder to get to. Well, they weren't able to get to the converter on the bus so they just cut the whole exhaust system off one of our buses, which was about a $5,000 fix on that vehicle," Kopp described.
The center uses the buses to deliver meals to roughly 180 seniors in the community, as well as provide transportation for their medical appointments. Now, this unexpected incident has set their organization back.
"It cost us $1,835 just for the repairs on the vehicle and then $77 tow and it'll cost us about $60 to refill the vehicle with fuel. Our seniors are the ones that are affected more than anything," she added.
She said each dollar spent on the vehicle could've been used on an opportunity to help their seniors instead.
"That money could have been put towards medical transportation for a client, it could have been put towards meals or emergency meals to provide to our seniors in the event that we can't get out and deliver meals when we because of weather or vehicle issues," Kopp said.
The incident happened on Tuesday, and since then a police report has been filed with the Jacksonville Police Department.
Kopp asks that anyone with any information regarding the incident reach out to the Jacksonville Police Department.
Anyone interested in making a monetary donation to the center can click here.