Police search for skateboarding couple in ‘extreme vandalism’ incident at Gerald Ford gravesite
Police in Grand Rapids, Mich., are searching for two skateboarders who they say defaced the gravesite of former President Ford and former first lady Betty Ford.
Surveillance video and photos from the March 27 incident show a young man and a woman kicking skateboards across the gravesite before sitting on top of the concrete structure.
{mosads}As the pair sits on top of the gravesite, one of the suspects appears to try and rip a letter out of the memorial.
Joel Westphal, deputy director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum, told WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids that officials at the museum are approaching the alleged crime as an “extreme act of vandalism.”
“We look upon this site as an important site,” he said. “This is a presidential gravesite and we’re not happy.”
The gravesite was also vandalized last February, when bikers did wheelies against the wall after jumping the fence at the museum, according to the TV station.
The former president, who took office after former President Nixon resigned and pardoned his predecessor for any Watergate-era crimes, died in 2006. His wife died in 2011.
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