It’s not unusual for excavators to be used on demolition projects, but over the past three weeks, vandals have taken to using the machines to knock down homes.
Police in Idaho, Illinois and New York have responded to cases between October 27 and November 11 in which excavators were used to severely vandalize houses.
Newly Finished House Damaged
Police don't know what prompted a 29-year-old man to use an excavator to destroy this home on Post Falls, Idaho.Post Falls Police Department
At 5:38 a.m., police began receiving multiple 911 calls that someone was destroying the recently completed and sold house with an excavator. The house had not yet been occupied by the new owner.
When police arrived, they saw a vehicle speeding away. They stopped the vehicle and charged the 29-year-old driver with misdemeanor driving under the influence, felony burglary and felony malicious injury to property.
The Post Falls Police Department says it continues to investigate the incident and is working with the homebuilder and witnesses. No motive for the crime has been revealed. Additional charges are possible against the suspect whom police said “lives a transient lifestyle and works in construction.”
Home for Sale Knocked Down
Demolition was planned November 4 for a large house damaged by fire in Petersburg, Illinois, but no one authorized the destruction of a nearby smaller structure converted to an apartment.
The fire-damaged house was demolished as planned, but sometime between 5:05 and 5:25 p.m. after the work was done, a vandal got in an excavator on site and knocked down the front half of the smaller house, according to a Petersburg Police Department Facebook post.
“Luckily no one was home at the time of the incident,” the post said.
"I've been doing this for about 27 years now, and this is a first. I've never seen just a piece of heavy equipment just knock down somebody's house," Police Chief Royce Shamhart told WAND-TV.
Police are asking for help in finding the culprit.
Woman, Child Flee House Under Attack
On October 27, New York State Police got a call around 3:30 p.m. of a disgruntled man attacking a house and truck in the town of Groveland with an excavator owned by his family’s business.
A news release gave the following account:
The 37-year-old man drove toward a home occupied by a 62-year-old woman and her 11-year-old male relative. He caused extensive damage to the home, including crashing through the side and destroying part of a wrap-around porch.
While damaging the property, he threatened the woman as she ran off. She contacted a 64-year-old male relative who soon arrived in his 2013 Chevrolet 3500 truck.
The truck was struck several times by the excavator. The driver and the excavator operator had a brief physical altercation, and the operator fled.
The operator was later found at his mother’s house and arrested by the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office. He was charged by the New York State Police with three counts of felony first-degree reckless endangerment, two counts of felony second-degree criminal mischief and one count of misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child.
