Charles City Police Department working on leads in car egging incidents

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

Washing egg off a car can be a tedious task for those who have been a victim of the prank.

The act is also a crime.

Several car owners have recently reported having had their vehicles “egged” in Charles City.

Captain Brandon Franke said the Charles City Police Department is working on the case to find out who may be responsible for the incidents — which seemed to have increased over the last two weeks.

“Over the weekend we had a few reports. I’ve seen on social media, too, that there’s been a lot of people talking about it, so I’m assuming a lot of people haven’t reported it,” said Franke.

Franke said his department has received about five or six reports of vandalism to cars where eggs had been thrown at them. He would not elaborate on whether a suspect or suspects had been identified.

“We have some leads we’re looking into on who it is,” said Franke. “Obviously we can’t say a whole lot about that right now.”

According to social media, especially Facebook, egging incidents have occurred at points all over town. One post indicated a sheriff’s squad car had been one of the cars that was egged, along with several other vehicles located near the Floyd County Courthouse.

“Generally it is just kids out doing what they shouldn’t. Thankfully, generally there’s not permanent damage — not saying it’s OK to do it — but it’s better than keying somebody’s car or something like that,” said Franke.

He said he isn’t aware of any egging incidents that have taken place outside of the Charles City limits and in the Floyd County Sheriff Department’s jurisdiction.

“It’s just us at this point looking into it that I’m aware of,” Franke said.

Social media posts have mentioned that other “eggings” have taken place in the town of Floyd.

Franke said the severity of potential criminal charges depends on the monetary amount of the damage done to the vehicles. Asked whether that charge could at some point be raised to the level of felony, Franke said that is unlikely.

“I don’t know if it would ever rise to that on just an egging,” he said. “If there was a major amount of damage, the charge would go up. Obviously, with an egg it wouldn’t be major.”

Franke said someone bragging about the incidents or talking about it on social media could be one way the perpetrator(s) could be apprehended — short of someone witnessing the act taking place.

“To driving around and see somebody whipping an egg out of their car window would be a great way to catch them,” said Franke.

Franke said the Police Department’s main goal is to get the illegal behavior to cease and for the persons responsible for the mischief to be held accountable.

“When they’re doing it that much, we need to figure out who they are get them to stop,” he said.