Friday March 29th, 2024 8:31AM

Dealership offers $5,000 reward in vandalism case

By Derreck Booth, B.J. Williams
GAINESVILLE - The management of a Gainesville car dealership is now offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of a vandal who damaged almost three dozen vehicles earlier this week.

Carriage Nissan reported Tuesday that they found a total of 32 vehicles that had been "keyed" at their Browns Bridge Road lot when employees arrived for work Monday morning.

Chris Ellison, Operations Manager for the Carriage Group, said repairing the damage will be an expensive venture.

"There's an insurance claim we're going to have to (file). Yeah, it's going to be a lot of time and money and out of pocket expense," Ellison said.

Ellison said most of the scratches were on trunks and taillights of both new and used cars. He estimated the damage at $20,000.

"I have rolling video of the person doing it. The resolution is not enough that you can make out a face, but you can actually see the person's clothing and the way they walk," Ellison added.

Ellison said the two dealerships on either side of Nissan suffered some vehicle damage as well.

Gainesville Police Corporal Kevin Holbrook was compiling information of the type of damage and number of vehicles affected at the neighboring dealerships.

Ellison said he was working with those businesses to establish a reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.

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