Three teens charged in December with stealing money from a St. Charles park facility, damaging office and sports equipment in the process, now stand accused of an additional string of burglaries in Wasco in Kane County weeks earlier.
Prosecutors allege the trio — Kyle Wandle, 19, of St. Charles; Nick Zamecnik, 18, of Elburn; and William Donlevy, 18, of St. Charles — took money and candy from locked concession stands belonging to Wasco Baseball and Wasco Little League as part of October break-ins. They also burglarized Wasco Nursery, where they smashed a truck window and caused other damage, before breaking windows, light fixtures and door handles at Wasco Elementary School, court records show. Overall, they caused nearly $12,000 in damage, with the bulk of it occurring at the school, according to charging documents.
Classes were not disrupted despite the vandalism, school officials said. A crowbar belonging to Donlevy is described in court records as the tool used to bust windows and gain entry to locked locations in the incidents.
The teens, who are all free on bail, face multiple burglary and criminal damage to property charges that add on to the initial cases brought by prosecutors in connection to a December break-in at St. Charles Park District buildings on Campton Hills Road.
St. Charles police, in an affidavit concerning the search of phones belonging to the teens, described ransacked offices used by youth sports organizations at James O. Breen Community Park on Dec. 19. Investigators wrote that computer monitors, phones and printers, among other items, were destroyed or damaged.
“There was visible liquid, suspected to be pop, dumped over electronic items in one of the offices,” according to an officer’s affidavit. “On one wall I noted a swastika carved into it and the word ‘Jew’ carved below it. … (I)t appeared the offenders seemed content to simply throw and break random objects around and break windows.”
The affidavit went on to explain that refrigerators were knocked over and food and liquids were tossed around a nearby concession area. Video surveillance, which showed the offenders, also captured the suspects entering an office area for Otter Cove Aquatic Park where electronic equipment was damaged, documents state. Searches of their phones revealed photos and videos of the teens during the park district burglary, as well as text messages referring to their actions, police said.
Park district officials estimated the damage to be around $32,000, police stated in the affidavit. A lawsuit filed by the district’s insurance company in late January seeks to recoup nearly $17,500 from the teens who “caused extensive damage” as a result of “willful and intentional” acts.
During brief status hearings in the criminal cases last week, prosecutors turned over 12 DVDs relating to the December case and 144 pages of documents in the Wasco incidents.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
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