Tulare County Museum reopened, almost a week after several buildings were vandalized

Fresno, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Tulare County Museum is back in business and there is no charge for admission here.

Some late night visitors had no interest in either of those things last Friday, when they broke the windows and doors of several museum buildings, including the surprise school, and smashed valuable display cases inside. Strangely, they did not steal anything.

"A lot of the display cases that they did ruin were basically homemade. So they're going to have to be dismantled for the glass to be replaced and then reassembled, so it's just going to take even more time, and then it might be more expensive," said Amy King, museum curator.

Workers had to carefully pick glass out of artifacts, and store them in a safe location.

They estimate the damage will be well over $5,000, and plan on using the money from two fundraisers next month for the repairs.

The suspects were caught on the museum's surveillance cameras, and on Monday, Visalia Police arrested two boys, ages 11 and 12, for the crime.

"We thought it was probably kids--I didn't realize it would be that young of kids. It makes me pretty sad."

On the other hand, King says they have received incredible support from the community and even a few other local museums.

People have made donations and offered their time.

"We want to be a community center. We want the museum to belong to the community, and so we really feel like it does because people are reaching out to preserve that, they feel like they have ownership in that and they want to help, so that's just really nice to know because that's our goal."