July 31, 2017 at 4:39 p.m.
Sheriff's department squad car damaged by cement block
Block thrown from roof of 28 N. Brown St. Sunday morning
Sheriff's department squad car damaged by cement block
According to Rhinelander Police Chief Lloyd Gauthier, Rhinelander police officers responded to a report of an underage male drinking in Bucketheads sports bar, 46 North Brown Street. They parked in the rear of that block of buildings and walked through the alley between 38 and 28 North Brown Street, Gauthier said.
"There was a male apparently urinating in the alley, so my officers told the male he had to go into an establishment to do that, he couldn't do that in public," Gauthier said. "They went and found this male on Brown Street that they knew to be underage who had been drinking, so they dealt with that person. On the way back (to their squads), there was this same male in the alleyway urinating. So they ended up issuing a citation to him."
As of Monday morning, Gauthier said investigators don't know if the man was upset about the citation, went up on the roof and threw the block or if another person is responsible.
"At some point, an Oneida County squad showed up and when the female deputy parked the car (in front of the building), she got out of the car and somebody made a comment about how she parked," Gauthier said. "I don't know if she parked inconsistent with the lines or what, but the comment was made. And she replied 'thank you,' and walked past the person. And it was a short time later that the block was thrown off the roof of 28 North Brown Street."
Gauthier said the only way to gain access to the roof is by climbing an antenna tower in the back of the building.
"My staff got up there and they could see a single set of footprints from the antenna to the front of the roof looking over (the edge) then going over to a pile of blocks, apparently, and then back over to the ledge of the building directly over where the squad was parked," Gauthier said. "So we think it was a single person involved in doing the damage."
The block struck the roof of the squad, punching a hole through the metal just in front of the light bar before it bounced and left another dent to the right on the roof. The bracket holding the light bar to the roof was loosened on that side while the roof liner on the inside was pushed inward. A light mounted to the inside of the roof was also knocked loose. The roof supports were bent slightly and the windshield was broken.
The deputy was not in the car at the time the block struck it, Gauthier said.
As of Monday morning, it was unclear as to why the deputy responded to the downtown location.
"I do know that we had an altercation downtown between two males, but that was after the damage was done to the squad," Gauthier said.
Oneida County sheriff's captain Terri Hook said Monday morning the vehicle will be taken to a local body shop for a repair estimate. She agreed with Gauthier's estimate that the cost to repair the vehicle is likely to be significant. Although Rhinelander police will investigate the crime, Sheriff Grady Hartman was expected to announce a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever dropped the block.
Gauthier said he anticipates the sheriff's department will provide additional resources as the matter is investigated.
The city's public safety committee had an initial discussion last week about the possibility of the city paying for electricity to operate five lights that Downtown Rhinelander Inc. may install in the alley, but the agenda item was for discussion only.
Committee chair Alex Young said Sunday evening that might change after this incident.
"I'm going to wait to talk to Lloyd but good chance that tomorrow I'm going to ask the mayor to pull that item straight to the August council meeting now to discuss options," Young said. "We can't have cinder blocks raining on officers."
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call RPD at 715-365-5300.
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