Hartford’s holiday light “Fantasia” is seeing dark days as vandals cut wires, break lights and destroy parts of the charity display.
“Three times we’ve been hit in the last couple days,” said Denise Hornbecker, executive director.
She says this is not the first time the light display has been targeted. Just last year thieves stole $80,000 worth of materials from the site, delaying the opening. This caused $35,000 in lost proceeds that would have gone towards a kids camp.
“They’re just being destructive and it’s just really sad because this is all about the kids, it’s for the kids,” said Hornbecker.
Sad for kids who get to attend camp in the summer and kids like Tiffany Roman’s two daughters, here in the winter to see the lights.
“It’s really unfortunate, not too many things happen in Hartford as great as this, so when you hear something like that, it’s just disappointing that we can’t just cherish and be grateful for the little things that we do have,” said Roman.
Hartford Police have extra patrols after this past weekend, when the vandals hit the Dora Explorer, Three Kings and Menorah displays.
“We’re looking to catch whoever’s doing this and we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, we’re not going to let this go,” said Hornbecker.