Vandals Strike Nursery, Cause $1 Million In Damages
July 2, 2008 Clear Zone Nursery, a wholesale nursery located in Alexandria, La., suffered devastating and intentional destruction June 22. Vandals set fire to more than $250,000 worth of planting pots, and they bulldozed 10 greenhouses, several acres of container plants and, most importantly, irrigation pipes, well and pumps.
Due to the damage sustained at the nursery, it is believed that Clear Zone was targeted and not a random act of vandalism.
“The water system was strategically and specifically targeted and taken out, so whoever was involved knew just what they were doing,” says Jay Pearson, majority owner of Clear Zone. “They knew exactly where to find the wells and the pumps in the dark.”
The total cost of damage to the nursery is still being assessed, but it is expected to reach more than $1 million. Nobody has been arrested just yet, and a motive behind the act is still unknown. Authorities continue to investigate the crime.
Pearson was woken by a call to his cell phone at 12:35 a.m., and told that the alarm system went off at a conference center on the grounds of his nursery. When Pearson reached the nursery, he found the Alexandria Fire Department putting out the blaze set to Clear Zone’s planting pots.
Pearson then went to the conference center only to find that a bulldozer had ripped through its main dining and reception hall. Authorities determined that the vandal or vandals stole the bulldozer from England Airpark property, Alexandria’s airport.
Still, the most costly damage was done to the property’s irrigation system. The damage toward that system alone totals more than $500,000.
Now, Clear Zone Nursery is simply searching for answers and trying to rebound.
“We are already beginning to repair the damage to the building, and we are hooking up to the city’s water lines to water the plants that were untouched,” Pearson says. “It is certainly very disappointing to see the damage to a project my team and I have worked so hard on, but we will overcome this and we look to a successful rest of 2008.”
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