COOLBAUGH TOWNSHIP -- Roughly two weeks after vehicles were vandalized in a commuter parking lot, security at the lot has been beefed up.
Police say a dozen cars had tires slashed and windows broken in that Martz parking area near Tobyhanna last month.
Now, the Carriage Square Shopping Plaza on Route 196 near Tobyhanna has brand new security cameras. That's great news for commuters who park their vehicles in one section of the lot before heading to work in New York City on Martz buses.
“That's what I heard. I was waiting to see what's going to happen,” said Nanda Doorbejal. “They told me between last weekend and this weekend they're installing cameras.”
“Oh, that's excellent. That's excellent. Make us feel much more comfortable leaving our cars here when we go to work, definitely a good thing to do,” said Arthur Kramer.
“Well, at least we know that we'll be safe and the cars will as well, so that is a big plus for the commuters,” said Tabitha Baker.
Just two weeks ago, Pocono Mountain Regional Police say a dozen vehicles parked in the Martz commuter lot were seriously vandalized. Those returning home from a long day's work in the city on the evening of December 27 were greeted with windows smashed out of their cars and slashed tires.
However at that time, there were no surveillance cameras in that shopping plaza, so nothing was caught on camera.
“I got scared. I didn't want to park here anymore. I was going to go to Mount Pocono [Martz station] but seems OK right now,” said Doorbejal. “I mean I don't know what the motives were. I don't know who did it, sad we don't know who did it.”
Martz leases that part of the parking lot from the owner of the shopping plaza, Spring Hill Realty. Martz said the company told Martz it is in the process of installing cameras. It's not known how many will be put up.
“It's a good idea. It's about time. This parking lot needs to be monitored and hopefully, this will never happen again with these cameras being installed. We hope,” said Frank Gruneis.
“Hopefully now that cameras are going to be installed, it's going to prevent that from happening,” said Kramer.
Pocono Mountain Regional Police continue to investigate the vandalism which they believe happened sometime between 2 a.m. and 7 a.m. on December 27.
Anyone with information is asked to call them at 570-895-2400.