An opponent of video gambling in Forest Park reported Saturday that someone threw a landscaping brick through the passenger side window of his parked truck and that a “Vote Yes” sign is his yard was “bent over into the yard.”
Former Village Commissioner Marty Tellalian said he received a call from Forest Park police Saturday morning informing him that neighbors reported the window on his green Dodge Dakota pickup truck had been smashed with the brick. The vehicle was parked in a rented space in the alley behind his residence, Tellalian said.
Tellalian said his global positioning system unit was still in place in the vehicle and the car doors did not appear to have been opened. The police categorized the event as “criminal damage to property” instead of burglary, Tellalian said. He said he’s owned the truck for years.
“[The brick] cracked the plastic on the door molding on the other side of the car. It was really thrown through the window,” Tellalian said.
The same morning, a neighbor called and said the “Vote Yes sign” in Tellalian’s yard had been smashed into the grass. The neighbor told him he picked up the sign and straightened the metal supports.
Tellalian said he has been in charge of distributing “Vote Yes” signs. Over the weekend he received a few requests for signs, but told callers that his car and sign had been vandalized.
“When I told some of them about the incident, they declined to take a sign,” Tellalian said. “We took down a couple at some people’s houses,” he added.
Tellalian noted that there have been auto burglaries in his alley in recent weeks. He said he hoped the brick was not personal.
“I really hope it’s just a coincidence,” he said.
