Paintball Attack on Rt. 100

Leaves N.Y. Couple Angry

For the past 40 years, George Wachtell and his wife have enjoyed coming to Vermont, from their New York home, for holidays and vacations.

Their last trip up—on Thanksgiving eve—was a distressing one, however. As they headed up Route 100, north of Rochester, in the dark, they suddenly heard "sounds like shots hitting the back of the car," Wachtell said this week.

"We knew something had happened," he added, "but we didn’t know what."

They pulled over, to discover that their car had been hit by paintballs, which had been fired from a car traveling behind them.

The car had turned off the highway, evidently onto Quarry Hill Road, just after the incident, he said.

The attack—Wachtell said it felt like a sniping—left them shaken. His wife, who had taken over the wheel for the last leg of the trip, was extremely rattled.

They called police from Hancock, where someone helped them remove the paint.

Both Rochester constables and state police were contacted about the incident, and now Wachtell is offering a $1000 reward for information leading to the identity of those responsible. (See the ad on the Rochester page.) Wachtell said he has recovered some of the paint ball material and plans to have it analyzed for DNA traces.

Wachtell said he has spoken with Rochester Constable Tom Simpson, who told him that there have been other paintball incidents in town, but that this was the first time he had heard of the paintballs being fired from one moving vehicle to another.

By Sandy Cooch