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Hanover evening sun
Gettysburg Police and the National Park Service are seeking information on unknown individuals who vandalized several locations around Gettysburg and the battlefield with spray paint and etchings during the same week that authorities previously announced vandalism in the park.
According to press releases from the Gettysburg Borough Police Department, on the morning of August 19, unknown persons spray-painted messages and symbols on an observation tower in Gettysburg National Military Park, as well as on several walls and locations in Gettysburg Borough.
A park service press release reported a graffiti incident on several boulders near Little Round Top on the battlefield on August 15, followed by the graffiti incident on the Oak Ridge Observation Tower on August 19.
In the incident at Little Round Top, the messages were reportedly not sprayed but engraved into the boulders.
The messages “Hope Lives Here” and “The Dead Will Rise” and other symbols were spray-painted on the War Department observation tower in Oak Ridge on Doubleday Avenue in Cumberland Township.
In Gettysburg Borough, “Hope Wins” was among the markers left along West Racehorse Alley and the campus of Gettysburg College.
The incidents in Gettysburg Borough occurred on Monday, August 19, 2024, at approximately 4:45 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., the press release said. The incident at the observation tower is believed to have occurred that same morning as well.
In some incidents, a symbol was sprayed that appears to show a cross through a heart.
Police released a surveillance camera photo of a suspicious vehicle in connection with the Gettysburg Borough marking, which appeared to show a light-colored SUV.
According to the park administration, thanks to the efforts of local conservationists, all traces of vandalism had been removed from the battlefield by August 20.
“I am so grateful to our amazing preservation staff for quickly and expertly restoring these sites so that visitors can continue to experience them as intended,” park supervisor Kristina Heister said in a press release.
“They are truly the heroes of this sacred ground,” she added.
Anyone with information about the battlefield incidents is asked to contact the park at 717-334-0909 or email [email protected].
Anyone with information about the incidents in Gettysburg Borough is asked to call Gettysburg Police at 717-334-1168 or leave a tip online at GPD Crime Watch Tips.
The incidents occurred the same week that park authorities asked the public for help with thefts and vandalism around the Gettysburg Battlefield that reportedly occurred in early 2024.
Reported at the beginning of August: That’s why Gettysburg Battlefield officials won’t say what was stolen and destroyed
In these previous incidents, the park administration remained tight-lipped about the extent of the thefts and vandalism and refused to release further information.
