Two American flags burned on Barrack Hill in Ridgefield

Two American flags were burned on Barrack Hill Road in Ridgefield late Sunday and into early Monday. Homeowner Jairo Contreras said his American flag was burned at the end of his driveway, and that at least four mailboxes were smashed around his neighborhood. “It looks like they hit mailboxes first and then burned our flags and then hit some cars,” Contreras told The Press on Wednesday, July 10. “We found our flag burned to the ground on Monday morning. There was about one inch of it left,” he said. “They spent time burning our flag, they burnt it together with the pole and they burned it to the ground ... We didn’t see them because we have a long driveway and the flag was put in at the end of it, closest to the road. It’s totally shielded from our house.” Contreras said his neighbor on Barrack Hill Road also found his flag burned. With neighbors away on summer vacation, Contreras wondered if some of the vandalism that took place over the weekend remains undetected “We’re encouraging everyone who might have had their property damaged to call the police,” he said. “So far there’s been four cars, two flags, and at least four mailboxes.” Contreras, who had rented the flag from the Ridgefield Rotary Club’s Fly the Colors program, said that he did not smell gasoline when he investigated the damage. “There was a little piece of it on the ground — remnants of the flag. It wasn’t flammable, didn’t smell of anything,” he said. Contreras also said that the suspects might have been caught on one of his neighbor’s surveillance cameras. “I can’t say much else,” he said, “all I know is there’ll be an investigation and it shouldn’t take too long to find out who did this.” Damaged cars Ridgefield police have confirmed they are investigating four incidents of broken car windows that happened in the early morning hours of Monday, July 8. They have not yet said whether the broken car windows are related to the damaged American flags and mailboxes. Ridgefield police Capt. Shawn Platt said that the broken windows appear to be criminal mischief, and that nothing was taken from any of the four vehicles. The incidents took on Armand Place, Walnut Hill Road, Barrack Hill Road, and Pin Pack Road. Platt said that the Armand Place car had two broken windows, and that the Walnut Hill Road incident involved four windows being smashed in. “An eyewitness described the individuals as two young white males who fled in a Grey Jeep Wrangler. These incidents are currently under investigation,” he said. According to Platt, the eyewitness said one of the suspects had dark hair and the other had curly blond hair. “They fled in a Jeep Wrangler with two other occupants,” Platt said. “The video from one victim was poor quality.” He encouraged resident to contact the Ridgefield Police Department on the anonymous tip line at 203-431-2345.

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