Jun 17, 2016 2 min read

Police are investigating a vandalism incident at a well pad in Morris Township in which someone fired numerous shots at an empty guard’s shed, riddling it with bullets, and damaging water pipelines on the site.

Morris Township police Chief Michael Natale said the incident, which happened at a water transfer station at 260 Barker Road most likely around the Memorial Day weekend, was reported June 1 by Consol Energy workers..

“There’s no way to determine the age of the actors, but it was clearly immature and reckless,” he said.

Based on the evidence at the scene, investigators think that multiple people used at least two rifles to shoot at four fire extinguishers until they exploded. They also hit the shed and 12-inch pipelines, some of which carry water underground, Natale said. The offenders used .223 Remington and 7.62-mm caliber ammunition, he said.

“There was a lot of expensive machinery in that area,” Natale said. “It didn’t really seem like they were going for huge amounts of damage as much as it was probably more like ‘Hey, let’s shoot some stuff up.'”

He said the vandals may not have been aiming for the pipelines, but the damage done to them will “require extensive repair work.”

“We don’t know whether they intended to hit the lines or not,” Natale said. “It could’ve just been two or three stray rounds. It seems like they wanted to make some fire extinguishers go ‘Boom.'”

Natale thinks the vandals got to the site on ATVs.

“We do get a lot of people on ATVs on the weekends,” he said.

The state police Crime Scene Unit is reviewing the evidence gathered at the scene and the investigation in ongoing.

Anyone with information about the incident can contact the Morris Township Police Department at 724-428-3009. Callers can remain anonymous, Natale said.