hillsboro doughnut vandalism.jpg

Hillsboro police are investigating vandalism incidents involving doughnuts and other food items in a city neighborhood. During the pictured incident, chocolate doughnuts with sprinkles were left on the windshield wipers of a vehicle.

(Hillsboro Police Department)

Correction appended:

During the past six weeks, vandals struck in a northeast Hillsboro neighborhood.

Police say the mischief isn't what they typically see: There's no spray paint or broken windows involved. Instead, doughnuts were scattered along and around the 5600 block of Northeast Farmcrest Street and neighboring areas.

Maple bars smeared across cars. Two chocolate doughnuts with sprinkles sat atop the windshield wipers of one vehicle. A box of pastries littered a yard.

Perpetrators have thrown other food in the area, too, including red potato salad, eggs and yogurt, according to police reports. But doughnuts have been the most common food found.

Residents told police that the incidents have always occurred overnight, likely between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.

"In my 25 years in police services, I have never investigated or seen a criminal mischief involving pastries," said Lt. Mike Rouches, a Hillsboro police spokesman.

Police think the mischief is occurring at random and that youngsters are behind it. Two victims have reported incidents to the department. But police think there are more who have not come forward.

The doughnuts are causing real damage, Rouches said. People must clean the mess up, he said, and that costs money.

Police first heard of the incidents on July 11, when a woman reported them to the mayor and officers. She had not been a victim, she told police, but her roommate and neighbors had. She knew of at least four victims and recalled about 13 times when she saw food smeared on cars.

In addition to doughnuts, someone smacked cars with yogurts, cakes and eggs, she reported. One time, she discovered "several fresh" maple bars smudged on cars and an Albertsons doughnut box nearby.

Police told the woman to tell her neighbors to report the mischief.

A sergeant on July 12 took the first report from a victim. The woman told police her vehicle had been hit six times.

She described these incidents:

On June 1, someone struck her car's windshield with a maple bar.

During the week of June 8, someone smeared "bread soaked in a white 'slimy' liquid" across her car's window.

During the week of June 15, someone spread pink yogurt along the front and side of her vehicle.

During the week of June 22, someone covered the side and front of her vehicle with red potato salad.

During the week of June 29, someone again struck her car's windshield with a maple bar.

On July 9 or 10, someone hit the hood of her car with a cinnamon doughnut.

After each incident, according to police reports, she paid $10 to have her car washed. Police do not think she – or anyone -- has specifically been targeted.

"I believe the case volume shows that these acts are specific in their residential region but random regarding victims, and more likely crimes of easy opportunity," Hillsboro Sgt. Dan O'Loughlin wrote in his report.

On July 18, a Hillsboro sergeant, who lives nearby, found a box of Little Debbie Coral Reef Cakes strewn in the middle of Farmcrest Street. The dessert was the yellow cake with chocolate creme version, which is topped with brightly colored starfish and fish-shaped sprinkles.

The sergeant believed the incident likely occurred overnight. He turned the cake box over to O'Loughlin, thinking the find was related to the other mischief.

O'Loughlin determined the Little Debbie cakes were sold at both Hillsboro WinCo Foods locations, on the east and west sides of town. But neither store discards food products in a way accessible to the public, he wrote in his report. He found that Albertsons follows the same practice. The cakes and other food items, he determined, likely were purchased or stolen.

The next day, July 19, a second woman told police that sometime around July 2, she found doughnuts thrown around her yard and an empty Albertsons box on her property. Mysteriously, a "Twilight" book was also left in her driveway, in the 5200 block of Northeast Windrow Street, she told police.

The victim also reported another incident that occurred on July 15, when two long, maple bar-style doughnuts with chocolate frosting and sprinkles were found on the windshield wipers of her son's car. The woman confirmed – through the sprinkles – that the doughnuts were from Albertsons, according to a police report.

Patrol officers have sent information about the case to the department's Street Crimes Unit. Police are also conducting additional patrols in the neighborhood, said Rouches, the agency spokesman.

Rouches is confident police will find those responsible.

"We'll solve it," Rouches said. "It's just a matter of catching up with the bakery bandits."

Anyone with information, or anyone who may have been a victim, is asked to call Hillsboro police at 503-629-0111.

The following correction was published July 22, 2014: Food vandalism occurred during the weeks of June 8, 15, 22, and 29, according to Hillsboro police. A previous version of this story incorrectly cited specific dates for some of the incidents.

-- Rebecca Woolington