The Sheriff’s Office in La Porte County, Indiana is investigating a series of incidents during which frozen water bottles have been thrown at vehicles, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
Most of the incidents have occurred on a roughly 20-mile stretch of US 421 between Michigan City and the town of La Crosse.
There were seven such incidents on Saturday, alone, between 2:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., according to the Sheriff’s Office.
But other similar incidents have been reported.
The bottles were thrown at vehicles from an approaching car on the two-lane highway.
If they’re both travelling at 55 miles per hour, that’s an impact equivalent to 110-miles-per-hour, one driver noted.
His vehicle was damaged. Michael Gill has a dashboard camera and it captured video the incident.
He said a “grayish sedan” with a headlight out on the passenger side, was approaching on the dark highway.
He was going north. The other car was going south.
Suddenly there was an impact and an object was seen flashing by the driver’s side of the windshield.
“There was this huge, loud boom and crack and I was like, ‘what the heck was that?’ So, I immediately pulled over to assess and sure enough there was a frozen water bottle half lodged in my grill.”
Gill said it caused several thousand dollars in damage to the grill, hood and electrical system.
Another victim, a woman, wrote on social media that her headlight was “completely smashed.”
Gill is offering a reward of $2,500 dollars for information leading to an arrest or arrests.
He said, “someone knows something,” and that “this has to stop before someone is seriously injured.”
Captain Derek Allen, with the Sheriff’s Office, said, in a statement, “These malicious acts are not only criminal but incredibly dangerous.”