Orono police searching for carp-wielding squad car vandal

The vandal approaches Orono squad cars, giant carp in tow.

Thousands of different objects could be used to shatter car windows, but fish would probably be pretty far down the list.

Nonetheless, giant carp turned out to be an as-of-yet-unapprehended Orono vandal's weapon of choice last week when he decided to do some damage to police squad cars.

On Thursday morning around 1:30 a.m., the vandal spray-painted an obscenity on two squads, then used 30-plus pound fish to try and bash in the windows of four police vehicles. Three of the fish hit cars without doing serious damage, but one shattered a brand new squad's rear windshield.

The incident was caught on the Orono police station's video surveillance system, and a reward is being offered for information that leads to an arrest.

One fish broke a windshield, but three others were left to decompose on or around the squads.

Sergeant Tony Wittke told WCCO that the carp-smashing "is a pain, because we don't have a lot of cars."

"The one that went through the window, that one was stinky inside," he said, adding that damage from the spray-paint and broken windshield ended up costing the Orono PD about $2,500.

Makes you wonder -- why use a fish rather than a baseball bat or hammer?