Anchorage Daily News

Vandals destroyed the Anchorage Bucs' tour bus this morning parked at Mulcahy Stadium, police said. The engine was set afire. The windows were shattered. The turn signals and headlights punched out.

No one has been arrested, said Anchorage police officer Chris Simmons.

The 1970s bus was the main mode of transport for the baseball team and its sister team, the Fairbanks Goldpanners. It delivered the teams and visiting teams to games around the state.

"The team is starting to come and they are just standing in front of it in awe," said Gary Lichtenstein, the Bucs' director of ballpark operations, who was at the bus Friday morning. "You can still smell it."

If caught, the vandal or vandals face felony criminal mischief and felony arson charges, Simmons said.

"The whole bus is pretty much trashed," he said.

No other vehicles were in the immediate area and nothing nearby was similarly vandalized, Simmons said.

Police first spotted the flames from the bus around 5:15 a.m.

Lichtenstein said the team is about to play 28 games in 26 days. The timing is terrible, he said.

Police are asking that anyone with information about the destruction to call them at 786-8900.

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