Graffiti, burglaries concern chief

By on Wednesday, May 5th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

PENDLETON – Warm weather brings an uptick in criminal activity. Pendleton Police Chief Chuck Byram said he’s seeing increasing numbers of burglaries, especially involving businesses.

“Most of it isn’t any type of sophisticated operation,” he said. “It’s more smash and grab – in and out in less than two minutes and gone – grabbing whatever is at hand.”

He said there have been seven to eight business burglaries and four residential burglaries recently.

Police also witnessed several incidents of gang-related graffiti in Pendleton over the weekend. Byram said that in every case, the graffiti stems from the Bloods, and not the Surenos.

“We see the Surenos, or the blue,” Byram said. “The Bloods is the red. That is something unique for us. It just popped up on our radar, and we’ll try to flush that out and find out who the responsible person or persons are.”