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PUTNAM COUNTY, Ind.- Vandals hit a Putnam County cemetery over the weekend, knocking down 18 headstones in the New Maysville Cemetery. Some of the headstones were hundreds of years old.

“It’s sad. It’s very sad,” said Corporal Scott Ducker, with the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department.

A Putnam County Sheriff’s deputy discovered the damage while he was on patrol.

“It was clearly just for maliciousness and it’s pretty sad that someone would actually destroy something that is so important to someone else,” said Cpl. Ducker.

A groundskeeper was able to remount the headstones. Days before the vandalism at the cemetery, a new playground at an elementary school about 10 minutes away was also vandalized. Detectives are looking into the possibility that the same suspects could be responsible for both crimes.  

“We don’t run into a rash of vandalisms going on at one time,” says Cpl. Ducker.

Someone took pink spray all over the new playground at Bainbridge Elementary School, leaving it a mess for the kids. Now detectives are stepping up patrols and want the vandals to know after hitting a cemetery and a school, it’s time to stop.

“They’re not going to continue to get away with it,” said Cpl. Ducker.

Investigator are asking neighbors to check their surveillance cameras and if they see any type of suspicious activity, call the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department at 765.653.1810.