Santa Barbara art gallery victim of vandalism

A Santa Barbara art gallery was hit with vandalism late Wednesday night.

In his 26 years as the owner of Waterhouse Art Gallery, Ralph Waterhouse says he has never witnessed such bizarre behavior.

“It was shocking just how much damage was done because I assumed it took a lot of force to do that,” said Waterhouse.

Surveillance video shows two men sitting outside of the gallery at around 10 p.m., when one of the men walks up to the glass window and looks to break it.

Waterhouse says nothing was stolen from his gallery.

“It seemed like a ridiculous thing to do because there was no intent as far as taking property or anything like that. They were just lashing out at the window, which to me seemed really crazy,” Waterhouse said. “Why would you do that? To just literally do some damage to something.”

It’s not the first time this area has seen activity like this.

Waterhouse shared another surveillance video, taken earlier in the week, of a man ripping lights off of a restaurant in the same courtyard.

He says he believes it is the same man who vandalized his store window.

“It almost looked like he was ranting and kicking up things — just being in an extremely aggressive mood,” said Waterhouse.

Just across from the gallery, Santa Barbara Arts shop owner Lynn Adams says she is on edge following the vandalism.

“It makes me nervous,” Adams said. “It’s just unfortunate that this is happening. Luckily we have security cameras and we have a security guard, but it still happened.”

If you have any information regarding the suspect, please contact the Santa Barbara Police Department at 805-897-2300.