Police investigating vandalism of flag display outside Soldiers and Sailors
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Outside a hall to remember the sacrifice of veterans, a display lies in ruin.
"They're really not hurting anyone but those veterans that we honor," Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum president and CEO John McCabe said.
About 350 of the roughly 700 flags were ripped out of the ground sometime over the weekend.
Each of the flags are put out in remembrance of a veteran. The program started in 2020 during the pandemic when people couldn't gather.
Pittsburgh police said it happened between 1 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Monday.
"It's only half of our lawn. It's not the whole lawn. We really can't make any rhyme or reason out of this," McCabe said.
He is a veteran himself and said he feels this was just childish and immature. So far no one has claimed responsibility or given a reason for the alleged vandalism.
"We have to kind of look and say to ourselves, 'What are people willing to do to disrespect our veterans?'" McCabe said.
The flags were set to stay out all month. Over the last two years, the museum has had no issues with the display. The museum's cameras did not catch whoever did this.
"Do you know what this building represents? Do you know why it exists? Do you know what our organization does in and outside of this building for our veterans and military?" McCabe questioned. "I'm sure they probably don't."
With the success of the past few years, Soldiers and Sailors planned to continue the veteran flag program.
"But now looking forward, we may have an issue with people either stealing or in this case pulling all the flags out. Never would have expected that," McCabe said about the future of the program.
With how little time is left in the month, the flags will not be put back up. The museum said it's fortunate this was not worse.
You are asked to call Pittsburgh police if you know anything about what happened.
