Vandals strike Swampscott eatery Cup N Board 3 times in one month

SWAMPSCOTT – The Cup N Board owner Susan Ellsworth planned to close her specialty-foods business across from the commuter rail station next Friday.And three vandalism incidents within the last month – with the most recent occurring on Wednesday night – have only reinforced the decision.”It takes a lot out of you, opening a new place,” Ellsworth said Thursday afternoon. “Then having people come and trash it ? I want Swampscott to thrive and wanted to do something for this area because it didn’t have anything. Clearly it’s going to continue to not have anything.”Ellsworth said that the first vandalism incident occurred a month ago when a potted tree she placed among several plants outside the door was thrown against one of the four plate-glass windows at the front of the store.The glass didn’t break. Last week, however, the vandals were successful. A birdhouse that her son constructed in woodshop was lying mangled beneath a big crack in the corner window.When police called her Wednesday night, she thought this incident was the reason. Instead, she learned that somebody had thrown a metal table at the plate-glass window next to the one that had been broken earlier in the week.”I think they’re going to get them all,” she deadpanned. “I’m taking the plants home at night.”Upstairs neighbor Tracy Dunn said that the “whole house shook” when the metal table was thrown against the building. She immediately ran to the window after she heard the table fall against the metal railing on the sidewalk. But she said she didn’t see anybody outside.Both Ellsworth and Dunn said they suspected that the vandal was somebody in the neighborhood, because nobody had heard any cars driving away after any of the incidents.Detective Tim Cassidy said that police received reports of graffiti on the railroad bridge abutments but no regular vandalism.”It’s a pretty quiet area,” he said. The incident “appears to be random at this time. Don’t recall the windows ever being targeted in the past. Just appears to be recently.”Ellsworth said she has no idea why anybody would vandalize the store.”I don’t have any enemies, the neighbors would never do anything,” she said. In the 10 months she has owned the business, she said that she had never been concerned for her safety – even when walking to the store at 5:30 a.m. and staying after closing at 7 p.m.But she cited the location as the primary reason she decided to close the store, saying that the store’s lack of parking, visibility and the poor foot traffic in the area – as well as a poor economy – made the store financially unsustainable. The vandalism just adds another negative aspect to the location.”I have hope for humanity,” she said. “But when they do something like this ? I just hope that if somebody is going to do this, someone steps up and would just be like, ?Hey, that’s not cool.’