Streetscape art damaged in Saratoga Springs

PHOTOGRAPHER: Lee Coleman

City police said three adults — two men and a woman — tried to climb onto a fiberglass Saratoga Art horse in front of Roohan Realty on Broadway over the weekend, damaging its legs.

This is the third time the artfully painted horse has been vandalized in recent months.

Sgt. John Catone of the city Police Department said investigators were given surveillance videotape of the incident Monday afternoon.

Catone said two males, both dressed in suits, and a female, wearing a dress, were “trying to ride the thing” Saturday night or early Sunday.

The three, who were all nicely dressed, looked like they had come from a wedding or some other relatively formal function, Catone said.

Police are also expected to study surveillance video from the Saratoga Hilton Hotel and Conference Center on Broadway, just across the street from Roohan Realty at 519 Broadway. Police are also checking to see what type of events were held at the hotel on Saturday, specifically during the evening.

The vandalism was caught on a video surveillance system installed by Roohan Realty, which owns the horse placed in front of its office. The surveillance camera was installed after the previous vandalism, according to Stephen Towne, chief operating officer for Roohan Realty.

Towne said police called him at 1:15 a.m. Sunday to report the latest act of vandalism on the horse called TR (The Realtor). Vandals damaged the legs and hooves on the fiberglass horse, he said.

A sign near the horse tells passers-by not to get on the horse, but Towne said that Broadway is a popular place for people who aren’t always on their best behavior.

“People enjoy themselves, [and] sometimes mischief comes about,” he said. “In this case, someone may have been trying to take a running jump on it.”

In one of the prior acts of vandalism, three individuals were seen on video kicking the horse and trying to disconnect the legs. In the other incident, a vandal stole a wreath of yellow ribbons placed around the horse’s neck in support of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The brightly painted TR horse is one of about a dozen Saratoga Art horses located throughout downtown. The art horse project was coordinated by the Saratoga County Council on the Arts.