Durham police search for vandals wanted for egging cars

"It's a prank that causes a lot of damage to vehicles," said Sgt. Dale Gunter with the Durham Police Department. "It damages the paint. It damages the clear coat, which can go into thousands of dollars."

According to police, there has been a rash of eggings in the Watts-Hillandale, Morehead Hill and Old North Durham neighborhoods.

"There's been dozens so far, so yeah, it's a little unusual," Gunter said. "We get them on Halloween, and generally, that's about it. And for some reason, that number has gone up."

The Watts-Hillandale neighborhood has been hit the most, and in response, one resident took it upon himself to collect data. He created a survey to see if he can identify trends.

So far, the survey has not found any correlations on the makes of vehicles hit, but it concluded that the eggings occur overnight.

Once caught, whoever is doing the egging could face serious consequences, police say.

"Civil penalties, criminal charges, jail, they can be arrested," Gunter said. "They run afoul of the law, and it is never good to go to court when you are the defendant."

Police say they think the egging is being done from teenagers who do not understand the seriousness of the consequences.

"We've put more officers into the area where it is happening, during the times that it is happening, so the likelihood of us catching someone rises," Gunter said.

Police encourage any resident who has been egged to report it to officers immediately.