Vandal cost hotel $2 million in repairs

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A Jacksonville, Fla., hotel, flooded when a vandal opened high pressure water standpipes, will reopen after $2 million in repairs, hotel officials said.

Hotel management at Homewood Suites by Hilton and Hilton Garden Inn, which share a building, said surveillance cameras showed an apparently angry, drunken man staggering through the halls shortly before the pipes were opened Oct. 4, but there are no cameras in the area of the pipes, the Jacksonville Times-Union reported Tuesday.

"The fire department had to come. It ran for 20 minutes. We don't know who did it," said Ron Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Landcom Hospitality Management Inc.

Johnson said sheriff's office investigators think the man was a disgruntled Indianapolis Colts fan staying at the hotel, as just hours before the incident, the Jacksonville Jaguars, playing at home, upset Indianapolis.

The hotel is scheduled to reopen Dec. 16, the Times-Union reported.