NORTH NORWICH – A man pulled next to a van up for sale along State Highway 12 in North Norwich and got out of his white jeep with a baseball bat, beating the van’s lights and windows before lighting it on fire, witnesses said Thursday.
The Chenango County Sheriff’s Office is searching for the suspect, described as a six foot tall white male between the ages of 30 and 40, with light color hair, a slight stocky build and wearing a brown coat and blue jeans.
Police said they are also searching for the suspect’s vehicle, described as a white, late 90s Jeep Grand Cherokee, with a darker, heavier SUV styled body modeling.
The North Norwich Fire Department was called to the scene of the vehicle fire at about 9:48 a.m. Thursday, just off of Rt. 12 directly across the road from the Catalog Outlet, which is located about a mile from County Rt. 32, in the Town of North Norwich.
Sheriff’s Lt. Richard Cobb said they believe the suspect’s vehicle returned to the City of Norwich following the incident. A white jeep was spotted at the red light intersection in the left-hand turning lane on East Main Street, waiting to turn down South Broad. Cobb said instead of traveling onto South Broad, the vehicle went straight through the intersection, cutting off traffic in the other lane and proceeded up West Main Street.
Anyone with information is being asked to contact police at 337-1924. All calls will be kept confidential.
One of the witnesses at the scene, Dorothy Gross, said she watched the whole thing take place from across the street.
She said a white jeep pulled up to the van, which has been sitting up for sale along the roadway since July. She and others looked on as the man exited his jeep and removed a lawn chair and a green and yellow sports jersey from his vehicle. The man then set the chair up facing traffic on Rt. 12 and draped the shirt over the chair in a fashion that displayed it to passing motorists.
“He then went back to his jeep and came back out with a baseball bat and smashed all the windows on the van, except the windshield. He didn’t just smash them, he enjoyed what he was doing,” said Gross.
She explained that the man appeared to playfully strike at the windows, hitting already broken areas several times and taking three or four exaggerated practice swings at certain points before actually striking the van.
“He then went back to his jeep and starting taking out a large box filled with stuff, things were falling out all over the place from it, there were gas cans in it too,” she said.
At this point Gross said a number of people had drawn their attention to the man’s strange activities, including “dozens” of passing motorists, customers at the nearby business and their employees.
“He took out a box, they were matches and I turned to Jim (her friend) and said ‘Oh my God, he’s going to light it on fire,’” she said.
Gross said she wished she had attempted to get the man’s license plate number, but was too enthralled by the strange scene to act.
“You’re just watching like everyone else. It was something that while it’s happening you couldn’t take you eyes off of it,” she said.
The Chenango County Bureau of Fire investigators responded to the scene after the North Norwich Fire Dept. put out the flames.
“This appears to be an unusual case because in most situations, people tend to preoccupy themselves with getting away with a crime, but this doesn’t seem to be the case here. This individual seemed intent on sending some sort of message or had some other kind of motivation,” said Cobb.