Vandals use dozer, backhoe and even a fire truck to cause $100k+ damage to trees, roads other equipment in Oregon

Updated Sep 22, 2015

Backhoe generic stockAn Oregon construction company is looking at a hefty price tag for the damage done by someone who broke into a jobsite and took a joyride on some of their equipment.

According to The Oregonian, a vandal, or several, found their way into an Oakridge Sand and Gravel road construction site near Springfield sometime between 5 p.m. September 10 and 5 a.m. the next morning.

The vandals were able to operate a bulldozer, a backhoe, a 10-ton roller and a fire truck, tearing up roads and trees in the process. They also tried to take an excavator for a ride.

“I don’t know if some of it was hot-wired,” Sgt. Gordan Gill of Lane County Sheriff’s Office said. “There was some keying of the equipment.”

The unknown vandals rammed the equipment into trees and into whatever equipment they weren’t operating all the while tearing up the roads.

Oakridge Sand and Gravel as well as the Bureau of Land Management face hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. The construction company is offering a reward for information that can lead to the arrest of the culprits.