Ledger-Dispatch

By Scott Thomas Anderson (sanderson@ledger-dispatch.c= om)=20

Backroads Cafe was one of four = businesses on Main=20 Street Sutter Creek to be vandalized late Saturday evening or = early Sunday=20 morning.

Photo by: Scott Thomas=20 Anderson
When dawn broke over Sutter = Creek Sunday=20 morning, the little town's quaint, picturesque atmosphere looked like it = had=20 been the playground of a maniac the night before.

Shattered = windows and=20 planters along the street, and a bloody mess inside a local bathroom, = soon had=20 many merchants wondering who was responsible for trashing the jewel of = the=20 Mother Lode.

Among the structural casualties in the mysterious = property=20 assault were Backroads Cafe, The Antique Gardener, Water Street Antiques = and Old=20 West Antiques - all located in roughly the same area on the north end of = Main=20 Street. In the case of The Antique Gardener, a large front window was = broken.=20 The next business over, Water Street Antiques, had a big outdoor planter = destroyed. Crossing Randolph Street, the assailant turned his attention = to=20 Backroads, smashing out the glass window pane in the shop's front door.=20 Evidently, the vandal then ended the rampage by crushing a window at Old = West=20 Antiques.

"We were told by the authorities that it happened = sometime=20 between 10:30 p.m. and 7 a.m.," said Doug Mennell, one of the owners of=20 Backroads Cafe. "It took a few days for the landlord to repair our = window=20 because it was actually part of the entire door."

Don Davis, = owner of Old=20 West Antiques, fixed his own window shortly after the incident, as well = as the=20 window at the Antique Gardener. For Aimee Peterson, who owns the Antique = Gardener, the only bright spot to the incident was that it's now = believed that=20 high school teenagers were not responsible. "I had a lot of people who = thought=20 it was related to the big football game," Peterson said. "Everyone = assumed it=20 was kids gone bad, but now I'm hearing that probably wasn't the case - = which is=20 a relief."

The Sutter Creek Police Department is currently = investigating=20 what transpired over the weekend. "We have a couple of leads in the = case," said=20 Police Chief Rob Duke.

Duke confirmed that at least one = perpetrator=20 appears to have stumbled into the bathroom of The Annex bar late in the = night to=20 wash his bleeding hands, leaving blood on the scene. "We have various = forms of=20 physical evidence," Duke added. "We've yet to interview one witness who = may have=20 interrupted the crimes, but I'm hopeful we'll solve the case within a = couple of=20 weeks."

A number of business owners who escaped losing their = windows=20 expressed concern about the nature of the crime. "I feel really bad for = everyone=20 who had to come to work in the morning and discover that kind of = vandalism,"=20 said Donna Rambur, owner of LaDonna's Marketplace, which is directly = across the=20 street from two of the shops that were hit. "It's the type of thing you = hate to=20 see people going through."

Peterson, whose business was already = the=20 victim of a property crime last April, said she's mostly glad that more = shops=20 weren't targeted Saturday night. "It could have been worse," she said. = "The last=20 time my store was broken into, I was lucky that nothing was actually = stolen.=20 This time I feel the same way; and I think it's good that crime was = limited to=20 only four businesses."

Peterson added that she hoped whoever was=20 responsible would be prosecuted to the full extent of the = law.

"They=20 should have to answer for this," she said. "There was a lot of damage = done that=20 night."

Scott Thomas = Anderson