Reward offered after memorial vandalized

Lindenhurst, where a 300-pound monument to 9/11 search-and-rescue dogs was vandalized last week, is offering a $500 reward to help catch whoever did the damage, the mayor said.

Sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning, the cement statue of a German shepherd was toppled and partially smashed. Suffolk police are investigating.

"Such an act is deplorable and unacceptable," village Mayor Tom Brennan said in a statement Saturday. "Damaging a piece of village property that signifies the tragic loss of life that many across our community still and will forever feel warrants swift and immediate action."

Tips can be called in to the Suffolk Police hotline: 800- 220- TIPS. If caught, the vandal could be charged with criminal mischief, authorities said.

There are no suspects as of yesterday, a detective said.

Eight people from Lindenhurst died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and plaques elsewhere in the memorial garden commemorate them. Only the statue of the dog was desecrated.

The Lindenhurst man who commissioned the statue, and paid $450 for it, is retired NYPD officer Steve Smaldon. He vowed to get a replacement -- and pay its cost if needed -- for the statue modeled after Smaldon's now-dead German shepherd who searched the rubble with him at Ground Zero.