Posted: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 6:00 pm
Three men are suspected of a BB gun shooting spree that caused more than $100,000 in damage to cars, homes and businesses earlier this month.
BY LORI PILGER | Lincoln Journal Star
Linda Chambers knows what it’s like to be the victim. Someone broke into her car and stole CDs once. On Tuesday, admittedly still in a state of shock, she waited outside of a Lancaster County courtroom for her son, Eric, as he applied for a court-appointed attorney on two charges of felony criminal mischief.
“I know how it feels,” Chambers said.
Eric Chambers was one of three men arrested by Lincoln police Monday, accused of shooting out windows and causing thousands of dollars in damage to homes, cars and businesses.
Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady said tips led them to 21-year-old Chad M. Renker of 5451 LaSalle St. and 19-year-olds Zachary J. Collier of 708 N. 22nd St. and Chambers of 1701 Prospect Ave., Apt. 4.
Police arrested them at their homes Monday on felony charges involving $13,500 in damage at Leach Camper Sales at 2727 Cornhusker Highway, T.O. Haas Tire of 5900 S. 56th St. and Quest Diagnostics at 5925 Adams St.
Collier and Renker are suspected of damaging property at T.O. Haas Tire and Leach Camper Sales. Chambers is accused of damaging property at Leach Camper sales and Quest Diagnostics.
Outside the courtroom, Collier aid he wanted to say he was sorry and planned to write letters of apology to the victims. He and Chambers both graduated from Lincoln High last spring.
“I’ll try my best to pay back the restitution,” Collier said.
According to his bond, Collier is unemployed. All three qualified for court-appointed attorneys and were to return to court on Dec. 13. They each face up to five years in prison on the charges.
Casady said realistically the victims of the vandalism may never see restitution, though it wasn’t too late for victims to report damage to police, if they haven’t.
“Obviously there is no rational explanation ever for a senseless vandalism like this,” he said.
Calls started coming in to police about the broken windows, many of which hit central Lincoln, on Nov. 11 and just kept coming.
Casady said they ended up getting reports about 205 incidents, with damage mounting to well over $100,000. He said they believe the three are responsible “for the vast majority if not all of the 205 cases being investigated that weekend.”
He said the initial information on the case came from Crime Stoppers tips. However, he said a key piece of information was the identification of a silver Mitsubishi Eclipse caught on video surveillance.
Publicity about the vehicle led to more tips to Crime Stoppers and to the identification of Renker, who owns a silver Mitsubishi Eclipse that police believe was involved in at least some of the crimes.
Casady said the suspects were using three BB guns that had been shoplifted from Lincoln’s two Wal-Mart stores. Police recovered two of the three BB guns believed to have been used in the crimes.
Pat Leach, owner of Leach Camper Sales, said it’s hard to understand why anyone would go down the road and shoot out windows. And they chose the fanciest, and most expensive, to hit, he said. Police said damage to five new motor homes Leach owned on his lot came to $7,886.60.
Leach said they didn’t notice the damage until a customer noticed the star-shaped chip in one window. They started looking around the lot and found others damaged, too.
“It’s a tragic deal because it’s not covered by insurance,” he said.
Linda Chambers said she thinks her son, a freshman at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, should pay restitution to the victims. “We will deal with it,” she said.
Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.
BB gun damage
The BB gun spree Nov. 11 and 12 pushed the total damage this year from BB gun vandalism to the highest dollar amount ever, said Lincoln police Officer Katherine Finnell.
In fact, the revised estimate of $100,000 damage caused in the spree was higher than the total for BB gun vandalism in 2000.
Finnell said it was the greatest amount she could recall for a single spree and put Lincoln close to $250,000 in BB gun damage for the year.