Update — 3 August 2026. The Ungheni Police Inspectorate has supplemented its 30 July answer (letter no. 34/54-12162 of 3 August, signed by deputy head, chief commissioner Sergiu Muruz). The 424 reports drawn up across the district under art. 104 of the Contravention Code since 2024 break down as follows: 194 in 2024, 132 in 2025 and 98 in 2026, as of 3 August. This year’s raw figure looks smaller only because the year is not over: per month, the rate is 16.2 reports in 2024, 11.0 in 2025 and 13.9 in 2026 — so 2026 is running above last year’s level, not below it. Of all these acts, 10 were committed by minors — 3 in 2024, 5 in 2025 and 2 in 2026 — and the police specify that none of those minors damaged public property. The third question, how many identifications drew on the municipal video monitoring system, went without a figure: “police officers do not keep records on this matter”. The 52-camera system, worth 103,815 euros, listed the prevention of “damage to urban infrastructure” among its stated goals at launch; how many cases it helped solve cannot be established from police records. Nor was it stated how many of the 424 reports concern public property — the public-property breakdown has so far been given only for complaints (29 of 675) and for acts committed by minors.
Update — 31 July 2026. The Ungheni Police Inspectorate has answered the newsroom’s public-interest information request (letter no. 34/54-12007 of 30 July, signed by chief commissioner Vasile Burlacu). The police examined two cases of damage to the installation: in March 2025 the offender was identified — with the help of the area’s video monitoring system, among other means — and sanctioned under articles 104 and 354 of the Contravention Code; in July 2026 the authors are still being established, as is whether the installation was vandalised or deteriorated because of weather. The clarification that changes the frame: “during the period concerned the police recorded no cases of vandalism” — the criminal classification under article 288, the one carrying fines from 27,500 lei, was not applied. Across the raion, 2024 to date, 675 reports of damage to other people’s property were recorded, of which 29 concern public property, and 424 official reports were drawn up under article 104. The number of cases with underage offenders was not communicated; the request has been reiterated. The answer also closes a question left open below: Independence Square is covered by the municipal cameras. The text published on 22 July remains valid.
Ungheni City Hall published an appeal to residents on Tuesday, 21 July: the heart-shaped installation in Independence Square, which the institution describes as a point of attraction for many residents, is broken again and again. It is kicked and punched, its letters are torn off, it is scratched or dirtied. Some do it on purpose, others do not, the institution says.
The police have detained several perpetrators. The „Heart” is restored every time, though it would be best if we kept it safe Ungheni Municipality City Hall
„Detained” does not mean „guilty” — until a final decision, the presumption of innocence applies. The identities of those detained are not public, and if minors are among them, the law requires additional protection of their identity.
The object is not yet three years old. According to the town hall, it was put up on 5 August 2023, stands over 2.5 metres tall and 2.8 metres wide, and was made through the „EU4Moldova: Key Regions” Programme, as one of the versions of the region’s brand — the body of the installation carries both the town’s graphic mark and the word „Ungheni”. It is tied to the slogan „Ungheni – a small town with a big heart”.
How much the installation cost and how much the repairs have cost so far appear in no public source — neither on City Hall’s own channels, nor in the State Register of Local Acts.
The same act, two very different classifications
The part worth knowing for any parent in Ungheni is that a blow to the installation can be treated by the law in two ways, with consequences ranging from 900 to 42,500 lei.
The first option is the offence. The Contravention Code (art. 104) punishes the intentional destruction or damaging of someone else’s property, „if the act does not constitute a crime”, with 18–36 conventional units — that is, 900–1,800 lei, one unit being worth 50 lei — or with 20–40 hours of community work. Paid within three working days, the fine is, as a rule, halved.
The second option is the crime of vandalism. The Criminal Code (art. 288) punishes „the destruction of property on public transport or in other public places” with a fine of 550 to 850 conventional units — 27,500–42,500 lei — with 140–200 hours of unpaid work, or with up to one year in prison. If the act is committed by two or more people, the maximum rises to 52,500 lei and the prison term to three years.
The essential difference: art. 288 has no damage threshold. It does not matter what the object is worth. That is why the other rule many people think of is not relevant here — art. 197 of the Criminal Code, which requires „damage in large proportions”, a threshold tied to the forecast average wage in the economy, 17,400 lei in 2026, meaning over 348,000 lei. A decorative installation does not reach that threshold, so art. 197 practically does not apply. Vandalism, however, remains a possible classification regardless of the value of the damage — the classification is made by the police, and guilt is established by the court.
When the perpetrator is a minor
City Hall asks parents not to let their children hit the installation, which suggests that some of those breaking it are minors. Here too, the law has different thresholds.
For the offence of damaging property, a minor is personally liable only from the age of 16. Below that age they cannot be fined, and the materials are sent to the local authority for minors’ affairs, which may apply educational measures. For aggravated vandalism — in a group, or against property of historical, cultural or religious value — criminal liability begins, however, at 14. For the basic form of vandalism, as for most crimes, the threshold remains 16.
The bill is another matter, and it does not depend on these thresholds. Repairing the damage falls under the Civil Code: for a child under 14, the damage is repaired by the parents, who are released only if they prove they were not at fault in supervision or education; for a teenager aged 14–18, they answer first themselves, but since they rarely have an income of their own, the damage ends up with the parents all the same. On top of that, the parent can be fined separately, 450–900 lei, for failing the duty of supervision that led to the child’s act.
Where the fine money goes
A counter-intuitive detail, but one with a practical effect: the fine for damaging the „Heart” does not go into the budget of Ungheni municipality. Offences of this kind are established and examined by the police, and the fines are transferred to the state budget. Only the fines applied by the administrative commission attached to City Hall would enter the local budget — a list of acts in which art. 104 does not appear.
The only way the town actually recovers the money it spends on repairs is civil compensation, claimed from the perpetrator or, when the perpetrator is a minor, from their parents.
The cameras
Since December 2024, Ungheni has had a system of 52 high-resolution surveillance cameras, with around 19 kilometres of optical fibre and analytics software, worth 103,815 euros, also delivered through „EU4Moldova: Key Regions”. The monitoring centre operates at the premises of the Ungheni Police Inspectorate, with recordings kept for over 60 days. The purposes declared at the launch explicitly included preventing „the deterioration of urban infrastructure”, and the cameras were placed, according to the announcements, in „recreation areas” among other locations. Whether Independence Square falls within their range has not been made public.
That video recordings can lead to identifying those responsible has already been seen: in May, two minors allegedly broke a surveillance camera at a bus stop and were identified from the recordings, the town hall announced, and the materials reached the police.
The context from the statistics
Data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, published by the National Bureau of Statistics, show for Ungheni district 45 recorded cases of hooliganism in 2025 — the highest number since 2016, 61% above the previous year and three times more than in 2022. The total number of crimes recorded in the district was 515 in 2025, against 495 in each of the two preceding years.
The figure has to be read with one reservation: hooliganism, in the sense of art. 287 of the Criminal Code, is not the same thing as the vandalism of art. 288, and official statistics do not publish, by district, the number of property-destruction cases. It is the closest indicator publicly available, not an exact measure of the phenomenon described by City Hall.