Niagara Falls, NY (WBEN) A shocking find over the weekend at the Niagara Falls Veterans Memorial as a newly installed bench honoring all branches of the military was found destroyed by vandals.
Stan Zimmerman of the Niagara Falls Veterans Memorial Commission says he got the call the bench was destroyed Friday night or Saturday morning. "It can't be repaired," says Zimmerman. "Because it's granite, we can't glue it together because the stress cracks is the safety issue. We may be able to salvage the back of it. We will give that to (American) Legion (Welch Post 381). They can mount that in their inside or their Legion hall if they wish." He says the bench showed the logos of all major branches of the military.
Zimmerman says the memorial has been around for a while, and there's never been a problem. "This came out of nowhere, this was a shock to us that somebody would disrespect the monument especially to disrespect the men and woman who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms," fumes Zimmerman. "I guarantee you that the person that did this, I could take him up to that the walls on honor with 3,000 names or the 400 names of people who died in combat, and they're probably related to someone on there."
Stan Zimmerman
The damage is $2,700, but Zimmerman says the bench will be replaced. He says Stone Art Memorial, which did the original, is already in production of making the replacement bench. "We're installing a state of the art surveillance system that's going to be incorporated with the police use local police departments to try to prevent this type of incident or happening again," says Zimmerman. He notes veterans consider this area sacred ground.
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Zimmerman says there is a $500 reward for information leading to whoever did it. You can call Niagara Falls Police at (716) 286-4547 or Zimmerman directly at (716) 807-7691.
