Thieves steal Police Jury truck, crash it into store

By: RAYMOND PARTSCH III Managing Editor A thief or multiple thieves stole an Evangeline Parish Police Jury work truck from the Mamou Yard, crashed the gate there before eventually running the vehicle into the back wall of the Blue Junction convenience store located at 3388 Chataginier Road around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, July 15. The truck was left abandoned, and also running, inside the store. “We don’t know if they were trying to break a whole in the wall for them to rob it or if they were just messed up,” store owner Shane Gotreau said. “We have it on film the truck being backed into the store but no one came in the store.” “They had pushed in an air condition unit and climbed through a whole in the wall and took other keys locked in the building,” Police Jury Public Works Director Chester Granger said. “When they took the truck they drove through the big gate. This is a new one for me. In my 13 years here this is one of the craziest that I have been called out to.” According to Granger, the damage at the Mamou yard resulted in an estimated $3,000 to $4,000 to repair gate and the truck. That pales in comparison to the damage done to Gotreau’s store, which he estimates will cost roughly $10,000 when all repairs, including the already constructed new cinder block wall, are completed within in the next few weeks. “I was very upset,” Gotreau said. “You know the thing I kept thinking about was how one person could do a lot of damage.” As frustrating as that day has been for Gotreau, he has been appreciative of the help that his customers and members of the community have given in the repairs of his establishment. “We wouldn’t been able to open right away if it wasn’t for our customers,” Gotreau said. “They brought generators ad extension cords, even helped close the wall.”