Thousand Oaks : Vandals Paint 14 Vehicles Left for Sale Along Street

Avenida de Los Arboles in Thousand Oaks was becoming a popular do-it-yourself used car lot, until Sunday. That’s when the owners of 14 cars and trucks parked there discovered that their vehicles had been given new paint jobs--and not the kind that boosts sales.

Someone used blue and black paint to vandalize the vehicles, leaving long, ugly stripes on the sides.

“Whoever wanted us to get out has accomplished their goal,” said Marilyn Friend, whose silver 1988 Mazda 929 was streaked with blue on the doors and fenders.

Friend said her husband Walter had parked the car in the 2500 block of Avenida De Los Arboles, between Erbes Road and Parkview Drive, on Saturday. “Everybody else was doing it, so we thought we’d try it this weekend,” she said.

There were 62 cars on the street in a residential area Sunday morning.

After they discovered that their car had been vandalized, the Friends moved it. “It makes you sick,” Friend said of the damage to the car, which they were trying to sell for $17,500. They speculated that a repainting would cost several hundred dollars.

Ron Schmitz was equally upset to find that his yellow 1978 Ford Ranchero had been sprayed. “There’s blue spray paint all along the right side,” Schmitz said. “It looks like they hit every other car.”

Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Stan Duitsman said sellers started parking their vehicles along the street about a month ago and the number of cars and trucks has rapidly grown. “Today was the first day that I noticed how bad it was,” Duitsman said. “There were a lot of cars out there.”

The vehicles apparently started appearing on the busy street after “no parking” signs were posted at the scene of another impromptu auto market on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Duitsman said. The signs were posted after residents and area businesses complained about the traffic the market created, he said.

No arrests had been made, Duitsman said.