Retailers on King and Market streets found their Black Friday unusually slower, but it wasn't the economy: It was the glue vandals had injected in some 70 retailers' locks.

Live 5 News writes that some businesses had unusual responses:
One of the stores decided not to wait for a locksmith. For the first time ever, M. Dumas and Sons decided to open at six a.m. to accommodate the shoppers waiting outside. So one of their employees actually picked up a cinder block, and threw it through the front window so they could open up for business.

It took lock smiths several hours to get the businesses up and running.

The action, though crude and lawless, could almost be respectable if it had been do in some sort of protest against consumerism, but I get the feeling it was just some bored teens.

Catch a video with imagery of the vandalization at NBC News 2, and catch lots of pictures over at "Walk this way ..."

Update November 29: The Post and Courier has a lengthy write-up on the vandalism.

It looks like that despite some video surveillance, they still don't have leads on who did it. Though, I took not of this paragraph:
[A King Street resident] said the incident shows how the downtown commercial district, a gleaming shopping mecca during the day, can become an unsafe, unfriendly place at night.

I doubt King Street at night was ever the friendlies of places, and it'd almost be a blessing if glued locks are the worst of crimes King Street would ever face.