SAN JOSE (KRON) — It was an ugly reality on Meridian Avenue in San Jose, as vandals destroyed nearly 50 trees over the last month.
In June, someone laid waste to 23 shade trees, spurring outrage all across town. Now, KRON has learned the vandals came back on Thursday and finished the job, destroying 23 more trees across the street.
There is now a $5,000 reward being offered for information that will lead the authorities to those who did it.
As she inspected the latest vandalism to the trees on the Westside of Meridian Avenue, Rhonda Berry of San Jose’s “Our City Forest,” struggled to grasp how it could have occurred again.
“My team has been watering these trees, has had to take a deep breathe when they came out to see the trees,” Berry said. “And saw the vandalism for the first time. We all had to take a deep breathe.”
One by one, under the cover of darkness, says Berry, the cowardly vandal or vandals methodically used a hand saw or power tool of some kind to sever the trunks of the young Chinese fringe trees.
The same thing happened to all the trees on the west side of the road.
On the street, 46 trees in all were destroyed.
City councilman Pierluigi Oliverio’s office, which paid for the trees, is offering the cash reward.
Meridian Avenue sees a lot of traffic, around the clock.
It is hoped the reward offer might generate some leads from neighbors and passerby, equally outraged by the senseless vandalism.