CITY OF KATY (Covering Katy News)—A Katy juvenile admits vandalizing The Dryer construction site, 5351 1st St., during an incident Sunday evening.
Hadi "Andrew" Nurcahya, who has been developing the site, said the juvenile was identified on surveillance video and was brought in for questioning by the Katy Police. The juvenile took responsibility for what happened, and his family will pay damages, Nurcahya said.
Nurcahya said he hoped the incident would be a lesson learned for the juvenile.
"It's going to be good for him," Nurcahya said. "A little bit of community service would also be helpful for his character."
The juvenile led two others in the vandalism attack, but Nurcahya said they were "just trespassing, jumping over the fence." Those two juveniles are not implicated in the distruction that followed, and Nurcahya said he would be meeting them and their parents later Tuesday afternoon.
"It's not that large of a facility, but there's a lot of ways for you to get in and be able to explore," Nurcahya said. "There's a lot of places to hide."
The incident took place at about 6 p.m. Sunday. The surveillance video showed the juveniles entering the site and driving a cart used to move equipment. The cart was left on a railroad track built to run around the dryer building, causing damage to the track.
"This is the reason we just got so irritated by something like this, because we work on every single one of these projects, and it's a custom railroad, it's a custom track," Nurcahya said. "To fix it, we must disassemble that piece. And we have to re-bend that track. It is a custom bend. We already put away all that equipment thinking we did not have to do all this. Now we must bring them back again. We must take time repairing things instead of moving forward. It is just tiring."
Nurcahya posted a video on social media and offered $2,000 for information that would lead to the identification and capture of those responsible. A person came forward and provided the information that led to identifying two of the three juveniles.
Nurcahya said the site has undergone between 20-30 attacks over the years as he has worked to turn the property into an entertainment and shopping area. The dryer is the tallest building in Katy.
"Nobody was hurt, thankfully," Nurcahya said, adding that the property, still in development, has private property signs to discourage episodes such as this one.
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The Dryer
Three juveniles vandalized The Dryer construction site.
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A juvenile trespassing at The Dryer construction site.
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A juvenile drives the cart.