Local company offering $5,000 reward for information leading to conviction of vandals

BETHALTO - Drake Excavating and Construction is offering $5,000 to anyone who shares information leading to the conviction of the vandal - or vandals - who attacked some of their equipment. 

Lt. Craig Welch of the Bethalto Police Department said the vandalism occurred Friday, April 14 at a job site being operated by Drake Excavating and Construction, located on Illinois Route 111 near the Family Dentistry, between the airport, GRP Mechanical and First Mid America Credit Union. Welch said vandals on the site broke windows on large equipment, tagged them with spray paint and even cut the hydraulic lines. 

On the Facebook page operated by Drake Excavating and Construction, several photos of the equipment can be seen with broken windows and tags against both Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and U.S. President Donald Trump. Some of the tags also were in support of unions, and seemed to accuse Drake Excavating and Construction of being "rats," going so far as to call a piece of a equipment a "Rat Rider" with orange paint, and then wrote "Got Chesse [sic]" on the window of another piece of equipment. 

"It is a non-union job, and there were union people picketing it," Welch said. 

While that may seem like a promising lead, due to the fact the word "union" was tagged on a large construction implement, Welch said there are no suspects at this time. 

"We're reviewing security footage from First Mid-America and GRP we were able to recover, but we don't have any suspects at this time," Welch said. 

The photos Drake Excavating and Construction posted on Facebook have as many as 3,400 shares, meaning they have been distributed throughout the sphere of social media promising that $5,000 reward. 

Anyone with any information regarding this vandalism is invited to call the Bethalto Police Department at (618) 377-5266. Tipsters may remain anonymous, according to both the Facebook post from Drake Excavating and Construction and the Bethalto Police Department. 

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