One of the vehicles used to deliver food for the Douglas County Senior Meals program was vandalized earlier this month when someone reportedly threw a sandbag onto it from a parking garage near the Lawrence Senior Center, 745 Vermont St. The photo was taken from the top floor of the parking garage. The sandbag is in frame at right in front of the car.

Douglas County Senior Meals is down a vehicle after an act of vandalism earlier this month totaled a Subaru Outback the program used to deliver meals to local seniors.

On the night of Friday, July 11, one or more people reportedly dropped a sandbag from a nearby parking garage onto the vehicle, which was parked by the Lawrence Senior Center, 745 Vermont St. The sandbag broke the windshield and crashed through the dashboard, totaling the vehicle.

“Given our financial situation, we can’t afford to buy another car,” said Ray Buckingham, Senior Meals manager for Douglas County Senior Services.

More disheartening still is the fact that Senior Services had purchased the vehicle only a couple months earlier. In March, the local nonprofit partnered with the Merc Co-op to raise funds for a new car, bringing in about $2,400. Senior Services used that money and the trade-in value of the previous vehicle to buy the Subaru station wagon. The more economical vehicle saved the nonprofit about $100 a month in fuel and insurance costs.

Lawrence police spokeswoman Kim Murphree said the department is still investigating the incident and working to identify three possible suspects reported by a witness. In the meantime, Senior Meals will have to make do without one of its three delivery vehicles. “This kind of puts us in a predicament,” Buckingham said. He added that anyone who has a vehicle the program can use should contact Douglas County Senior Services at 842-0543.