Vandals Attempt To Thwart Soldier's Christmas Homecoming

A young soldier's Christmas homecoming didn't go as planned, because of vandals, and now, days later, $400 in repairs have eaten through the soldier's entire budget for his family's Christmas trip home.

Evan Tyler, his wife and their two little girls packed up and traveled to Oklahoma for the holidays, but then something unexpected happened to their truck that dampened their Christmas spirit.

Evan and Kendra Tyler had been on the road about six hours and were just minutes away from his grandmother's house in Owasso on Saturday when their truck slid off the road on highway 75, just north of Tulsa.

"The very second we got out of the vehicle, two more cars came flying right at us, because they hit the same patch of ice," Evan Tyler said. 

Family members picked them up but the truck wasn't drivable so they had to leave it overnight and when they returned Sunday morning, what was supposed to have been a quick tire change turned into a huge mess. Someone had broken out the truck's side window and back glass.

Replacing the windows cost the Tylers $400.

"It most definitely made a huge impact on our holiday season," Tyler said. "That was our trip fund, our Christmas fund, our everything...," Tyler said. 

They have family all over Oklahoma and had hoped to see as many of them as they could on their trip. While this hasn't ruined their Christmas, it has shaken their sense of security and their faith in humanity.

"It definitely shone a light," Tyler said. "You can't  put too much faith in people and that's the terrible thing about it."

Despite the setback, Tyler and his wife don't wish bad things on the vandals. In fact, they actually hope the vandals have a good Christmas, even though they tried to ruin someone else's.

Evan Tyler and his family were trying to visit all the family members in this area over Christmas and it was really important to him because in just a month,

Evan is deploying to Kuwait and he's going to be gone for an entire year.