RIVERTON — Vandals cut down 13 young trees on the property of an LDS stake center early Thursday.
The president of the Riverton Copperview Stake, near 11800 South and 4500 West, found the trees on the west and south sides of the building cut down when he arrived at about 6 a.m.
It appeared the vandals used a jigsaw or a Sawzall to cut the trees, said Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Kendra Herlin. The trees were all cut at their bases.
The trees, which included a variety of elm, oak and blue spruce, were all about 3 years old and were 5 to 9 feet tall. Investigators estimated with the right saw it would take about a minute to cut down each one.
As of Thursday, Herlin said there was no evidence to suggest the vandalism was a hate crime. There was no attempt to break into the church and no graffiti or messages were left along with the cut trees.
"There's no indication the church was targeted," she said.
Stake President Ron Larsen told investigators the church had not had any threats and believed it was probably the work of mischievous juveniles rather than someone who had an agenda against the LDS Church, Herlin said.
"Why somebody would want to cut trees, I don't know," she said. "That's bizarre. It's really strange. It's sad."
Detectives believed the vandalism happened sometime between 11 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday. No other vandalism was reported in the area. Damage was estimated at $10,000.
Kelly Walker is a member of the church and has a house adjacent to its property. He said he and his wife were up until 1 a.m. Thursday and didn't hear anything.
"It's tragic people do these kind of things," he said. "People just do weird things."
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com