Crime & Safety

Crowbar Smashes Stop Sign, Cops Arrest Teens

Teenagers arrested for causing damage to Crystal Lake vehicles.

Two 18-year-olds and a juvenile were charged Jan. 22 with damaging a number of vehicles and mailboxes in .

Cleveland L. Wiggins, 18, of 764 Weston Drive in Crystal Lake and Zachary J. Mecko, 18, of 1024 Butler Drive in Crystal Lake were each charged with two counts of criminal damage to property, Class A Misdemeanors. A juvenile, who is also a Crystal Lake resident, was charged with one count of criminal damage to property.

According to , police responded to the corner of Autumncrest Drive and Deerhaven Drive after receiving information of an individual damaging a stop sign with what appeared to be a crowbar. The witness, a Crystal Lake Street Department employee who was salting streets at the time, contacted police immediately with the license plate number and description of the suspect’s vehicle.

Find out what's happening in Crystal Lake-Carywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The suspect's vehicle was located and stopped within minutes by Crystal Lake Park District Police at Candlewood Drive and Alexandra Blvd. According to police, the vehicle was occupied by Wiggins, Mecko and the male juvenile.

All three were detained and transported to the Crystal Lake Police Department.

Find out what's happening in Crystal Lake-Carywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to police, the investigation revealed that all three individuals were responsible for at least 24 separate acts of reported damage which targeted unoccupied parked vehicles and mailboxes between Jan. 21 and 22. Police say the majority of the damage occurred in the southwest area of the Crystal Lake, which included eight vehicles damaged with one windshield broken and 16 mailboxes.

Police said the estimated damage exceeds $3,000 collectively.

Wiggins and Mecko were processed and released after each posted $150 bond and given a court date of March 13.

The juvenile was released to his parents.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.