"It’s a direct attack on the people of Mount Vernon. We are not going to be intimidated. We are going to catch whoever is responsible for this act of hate against the people of the city." Those were the strong words from Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas after someone stuffed the gas tanks of the New York city's municipal trucks with latex gloves some time between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. As a result, the snow plows and salt trucks couldn't immediately clear the streets after a snow and ice storm Tuesday, Fox News reports. Two city trucks became disabled around 6am Tuesday, after which the gloves were found in their tanks and, subsequently, the tanks of 27 other trucks—all of the city's 16 garbage trucks and 13 snow plows in total.
Police are looking for a perpetrator or perpetrators who entered a public works garage to commit the sabotage, the Journal News reports. Several trucks were back in commission by 10am Tuesday. A fake pipe bomb had also been left in Mount Vernon City Hall Jan. 14, and on the same day, someone set a filing cabinet in the building on fire. Thomas appeared to link all the incidents, saying, "We’re very aggravated by the constant harassment by groups of people that want to obstruct progress and the protection of the people of the city." (More weird crimes stories.)