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Niles police seek 2 in vandalism spree
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A John Deere Tractor Shovel, owned by Mike Coates Construction Co. of Niles, was stolen and used to damage a vacant home in Niles. Police believe two men are involved in Monday’s early-morning rampage, using the company’s tractor to destroy both commercial and residential property.
Niles
Police are looking for two men who went on an early-morning rampage Monday with a John Deere Tractor Shovel, using the large machine to vandalize a house and construction trailers.
They also vandalized parts of the new high school.
Capt. Ken Criswell, the chief of detectives with the Niles Police Department, said the men got into the tractor at the school construction site at 616 Dragon Drive and smashed in several construction trailers there. The trailers and the machine belong to Mike Coates Construction Co. of Niles.
After driving the machine west on Wade Avenue and south on John Street, the destruction ended at a vacant home at 134 E. Woodland Ave.
There, the men used the shovel’s arm to cave in a portion of the house.
Police have at least one suspect in mind but were not releasing his name as of Monday.
Criswell said a witness wrestled with the two men along Wade Avenue, but both suspects escaped before police arrived. The witness said he knew the identity of only one of the men, Criswell said.
“His name came up on a similar incident,” Criswell said of the man the witness identified.
After the scuffle with the witness, one of the perpetrators left behind a backpack and scraps of clothing from which Criswell said they may be able to get DNA. He also said the men left the key in the ignition of the shovel, allowing police to collect DNA from it.
The suspects also damaged the football scoreboard, pulled a chain-link fence at 152 Wade St. and destroyed the above-ground pool there.
Inside the new high school, they sprayed graffiti on two of the walls and took a torch to some of the equipment.
Police don’t know what stopped the men at the Woodland home and prevented them from causing more damage.
“I don’t know what spooked him and stopped him from doing that, but it could have been much worse,” Criswell said.