The long arm of the lawbreaker’s excavator landed on the roof of a surplus cruiser parked near the Miami Township Civic Center, 6101 Meijer Drive.
The Hyundai backhoe had been parked on the adjacent property of Loveland Excavating, about 200 yards from the cruiser, Detective Nick Colliver said.
“They either thought they were being funny or were angry,” Colliver. “This was just deliberate. There’s no doubt about it. They drove it from Loveland Excavating straight up to the cruiser, dropped the bucket on it and crushed it.”
Nobody was in the car at the time of the incident, which police said occurred between 8 p.m. Aug. 27 and 7 a.m. Aug. 28.
Aside from part of the pavement that was cracked by the weight of the backhoe, nothing else was damaged, Colliver said.
The 1998 Ford Crown Victoria, valued at $3,000, was to be sold at auction or to another municipality before the act of vandalism, said Tim Pennington, community relations director for the township. Instead, the destroyed car was hauled away as scrap.
The cruiser had been used as a canine unit, but it was decommissioned and had been parked at the civic center for a couple of months.
Whoever operated the backhoe and its hydraulic arm had the keys, Colliver said. None were reported missing from Loveland Excavating.
“We’re pursuing several leads right now,” Colliver said. “Somebody knew what they were doing. The person certainly had experience in operating heavy equipment.”