Slasher Ruins $50,000 More in Suits

An elusive vandal who slashes designer clothes at upscale stores is back at work with a vengeance, destroying six more suits over the Memorial Day weekend and bringing to $50,000 the total damage inflicted in the last six weeks alone.

The heightened pace of the attacks, in which men’s designer suits at mall stores are the primary targets, has frustrated police, worried merchants, and baffled psychiatrists, who suggest that the spree may represent anything from a prank to a protest against materialism.

“We have no suspects, no (psychological) profile, no idea,” said Mike Millington, a Costa Mesa police detective. “There is nothing to say it is the same person, but at the same time it could be one person.”

Most of the suits are men’s, dark in color, 100% wool, sizes 38 to 46, and priced over $300. Most of the attacks have occurred at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and Fashion Island in Newport Beach.

A small incision, usually around 2 inches long, is made in the coat “right about where the shoulder blade is,” said Officer Bill Ellwood of the Costa Mesa Police Department. “The slacks are never touched.”

While authorities know what the vandal likes to destroy, they are uncertain about the motive.

“Obviously, these are not feelings of love that he is trying to express,” said Dr. Kaushal Sharma, a psychiatrist who specializes in criminal behavior.

The slasher may feel hostility toward department stores or against expensive designer-label clothes, possibly because he or someone he loves was fired by a department store, Sharma said.

“But we can be thrown off track by concentrating too much on the clothes,” he said. While it is clear that the person is expressing anger, without more information the actual motivation cannot be known, Sharma said. “With this little evidence, we can’t do a psychological profile,” Sharma said.

“This person has to be mentally intact, not psychotic. He or she needs to be functioning reasonably well to do one after another (acts of vandalism) and not get caught,” Sharma observed.

The slasher may be “ventilating his anger toward symbols of wealth and affluence, making a statement about the unequal distribution of wealth that borders on a quasi-political statement,” said Charles Grob, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at UC Irvine.

Frank Crinella, a clinical professor of psychiatry at UCI, said the culprit sounded “more like a prankster than an angry vandal.”

The vandalism is “certainly destructive and a great concern to merchants, but the behavior sounds basically mischievous,” said Crinella, comparing it to college pranks.

Catching the slasher, who is believed to have operated for two years, is difficult because there is no pattern to the incidents, and police lack resources, Millington said.

“We don’t have the manpower,” said Millington.

The problem for detectives is that, thus far, there are no evidence and no witnesses, and “it is difficult to do much with that type of crime,” Millington said.

In contrast with psychiatrists, stores that have been victims were very cautious about discussing the recent attacks.

“We can’t comment on security,” said Linda Luna, a spokesperson for Nordstrom.

“The stores are extremely concerned, they want this guy arrested,” Officer Aaron Thomas of the Costa Mesa police said.

“We don’t patrol every store. . . . We’re out in parking lots watching for vehicle burglaries and dealing with shoplifters,” Thomas said. “These stores have their own security. . . . If anyone is going to catch them, it will be internal security.”

Richard Khilcott, manager of Nordstrom at South Coast Plaza, said that the merchandise is “damaged goods that are not usable or sellable.” Neither Nordstrom nor Robinson’s (another store hit by the slasher) would respond to inquires about what they do with the damaged suits.

Over the last six weeks, at least 87 designer suits, the majority of them men’s, have been slashed. There have been at least six separate attacks on local retailers, usually such major department stores as Robinson’s, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, but a small tennis accessories store on Fashion Island has also been hit.

A similar series of clothes slashings was reported between November, 1986, and July, 1987, at South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island in which more than $48,000 in damage was inflicted.

After an 18-month lull, men’s suits at Harris & Frank in South Coast Plaza were slashed in January, with losses totaling $2,270, Police Officer Ellwood reported.

On April 24, at South Coast Plaza, more than $22,000 worth of expensive men’s suits, dress shoes and jogging clothes at Nordstrom and Bullock’s department stores were slashed. On the weekend of May 6 and 7 at Fashion Island, 30 ruined suits worth $18,000 were discovered at Robinson’s and eight slashed suits worth $5,600 were found at Neiman Marcus. The next week three Sergio Tacchini warm-up suits were discovered cut at Forty Love, a tennis accessory shop at Fashion Island.

Last week, eight suits, priced between $350 and $490, and one red blouse, were found cut at Robinson’s in South Coast Plaza. Then on Saturday there was another episode at Robinson’s when two black Nino Cerruti suits and one gray Evan Picone suit were discovered slit. The one unusual feature about the Saturday attack was that the slashes were 3 to 4 inches long, Ellwood said.

Finally, the last reported attack occurred on Monday at Nordstrom in South Coast Plaza when three suits worth $1,020 were discovered slashed.