'Frustrated' Prior Lake homeowners searching for kids who ran into, damaged garage doors

Prior Lake American

In surveillance footage captured outside of Prior Lake resident Dennis Kong’s home, six ghostly figures are seen running up to his garage door and slamming into it.

They’re not ghosts.

Based on their garb, height and the activity that they’re engaging in, they’re most likely teenagers, homeowners say. Teenagers who, on June 20, caused thousands of dollars of damage to about six homes in The Wilds neighborhood in Prior Lake.

Now, homeowners are hoping others will be able to identify the people in the video to receive reimbursement for the damage done during the “prank.”

“We’re all very angry, very frustrated,” Kong said. “We were all teenagers, we all understand that we’ve all done stupid things. Tee-peeing people’s houses and ding-dong ditches are one thing, this is a whole other level when you’re causing thousands of dollars in property damage because of some stupid prank.”

The Prior Lake Police Department is looking into at least two active cases regarding the garage doors. Prior Lake Police Chief Mark Elliott said it is “unusual.”

“I don’t recall having anything like this where it’s random vandalism to garage doors,” Elliott said.

Prior Lake resident Leslie Webster and her husband decided to go to bed at 1:30 a.m. that day. After a few minutes in bed, she heard a large pounding from the garage door.

“I knew it was the garage door because of the way it sounded,” Webster said. “I called 911 right away — I was really frightened at the time.”

When the police arrived, they found footprints in the grass. The next day, Webster’s daughter saw posts on Facebook about other homes in the area who had experienced something similar.

“(The garage door) will have to be repaired,” Webster said. “There’s probably half a dozen dents on it. Our neighbor’s next door is very, very damaged. ... It could be a large sum of money because I know garage doors aren’t cheap.”

Kong said his garage door will have to be replaced to the tune of $1,500.

In the surveillance footage captured from Kong’s home as well as another neighbor’s surveillance footage, none of the kids can be identified. Still, Kong said, someone knows who did it.

“Somebody out there knows who these kids are,” Kong said. “If it was your kid, or your boyfriend or your teammate, there’s enough characteristics in the video to say, ‘hey, that was Joe’ or ‘that was Alex.’ Nobody is doing the right thing and coming forward which is what is really frustrating for a lot of us.”

Kong said he’s confused about why this would even occur to someone as a prank.

“First of all — why?” Kong said. “I know teenage boys are stupid — I was one myself — but why? Why in your most ridiculous scenario did you convince each other to do this and think that it was a good idea? I mean really, come on.”

Kong said the residents of The Wilds neighborhood are “frustrated.”

“(We have to) spend thousands of dollars we weren’t planning on spending because of a stupid teenage prank,” he said.

Webster said that on top of the damages to the garage doors, the prank scared the residents of the neighborhood.

“It frightens people for one thing, and it’s going to cost a lot of money,” Webster said. “I would hope they’d be held accountable for that. If they have to work it off doing jobs around, that’s OK, then they have to work for it. I think they should be held accountable and have to pay for it.”

Kong said he agreed that he just wants whoever damaged the garage doors to be found.

“We just want this resolved and to have the kids caught and punished for what they did,” he said.

Those with information can anonymously contact the Crime Stoppers of Minnesota tip line by calling 800-222-TIPS or by sending a text containing the phrase “TIP674” to 274-637. The Prior Lake Police Department can also be reached at 952-440-3555.