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Cave Vandals Who Are They?

I hope these facts can help shed some light on who cave vandals are. In some cases the vandals name is included but the goal here is not  to target these individuals but a to build a profile of a typical cave vandal to help understand who they are and why they do it. 

 

I will only be listing and discussing cases of vandalism where the person(s) were actually caught since this is the only way to know for certain who they were.
I will only be listing a brief description of the person but not the full story and details. I will however include a link to the details in most of the cases. We have a discussion on the cave vandalism so you can make suggestions and submit data to be posted and/or linked to from this page.

What I want to establish is age, M/F?, how far they live from cave, type of damage, and Number of vandals in group. If you know any of the information that is not included or if you think something else needs to be please let us know in the discussion link above. 
The Vandalism Cases
  1. Utah - 2 teenagers, 1 male 1 female wrote their names on the wall. Distance unknown.
  2. Indiana - 20 year old male, taking and breaking formations and injuring bats. distance unknown.
  3. Pennsylvania - 2 males graffiti. distance unknown.
  4. Australia - presumed male (?) construction worker(s) cause intentional damage to cave and cave entrance.
  5. Kentucky - 4 males, age unknown to me at this time, distance unknown, killed several hundred bats.
  6. Wyoming - 20 year old male, left behind broken bottles and trash. Distance unknown but local.
  7. Crystal Cave - KY - 3 males ages 33, 23, 18, local, breaking & taking formations. Reason: monetary 
  8. Canada - 2 'young males', local, gate damage, breaking formations. Reason: dislike cave gates/organized cavers
  9. Missouri - 3 young males, breaking artifacts, local
  10. Indiana - 2 males, Kevin & Andy, 20 and 21 years old. Entered Reeves cave unprepared, lights go out had to be rescued. Admitted killing several bats, no charges filed.
   
Case Age M/F Distance Group Damage
1 teen M ? 2 Graffiti
1 teen F ?   Graffiti
2 20 M ? 5 Breaking & Taking, Injury to Cave life
3 19 M ? 2 Graffiti
3 21 M ?   Graffiti
4 ? M? ?   Construction, intentional
5 ? M ? 4 killed numerous bats
5 ? M ?   killed numerous bats
5 ? M ?   killed numerous bats
5 ? M ?   killed numerous bats
6 20 M ? local ? littering
7 23 M 25 3 Breaking & Taking
7 33 M 30   Breaking & Taking
7 18 M 25   Breaking & Taking
8 ? M Local 2 Breaking Formations, Gate Damage
8 ? M Local   Breaking Formations, Gate Damage
9 ? M Local 3 Breaking artifacts
9 ? M Local   Breaking artifacts
9 20 M Local   Graffiti, Taking & Breaking
10 20 M Local 2 Killing bats
10 21 M Local   Killing bats
           
           
AVG 21.5 20/1 Local 2.8  

 
Related Links & Resources
Preventing Cave Vandalism
Black Mountain Vandalism
Cumberland County Tennessee
Birds & Butterflies along the Cumberland Trail
Obed River section report


 

 

 

 

 

 
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