Vandals set back Pleasant Hope company

Authorities say an 18-year-old man and two 19-year-old men breeched a construction site in Independence after a night of partying Sept. 8. They allegedly wanted to joyride on equipment such as bulldozers and in the process toppled and smashed nearly a dozen pieces of excavating equipment.

Bruette’s company, Precision Pool Inc., was the biggest victim, suffering a loss of $300,000 after the culprits destroyed eight of its 10 machines. Bruette said another contractor lost $75,000 of equipment.

The site of the crime is Crackerneck Creek, a $200 million, 180-acre lifestyle development that will be anchored by a 150,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World. Precision Pool was building an 80-foot waterfall for Bass Pro when the vandalism occurred, and it has since resumed construction. Precision Pool has built water features for Bass Pro in Oklahoma, Colorado and Texas, completing seven waterfalls and a large aquarium this year in San Antonio.

Bass Pro spokesperson Larry Whiteley said the Independence store is still scheduled to open in May.

“It was a pretty devastating loss to us,” Bruette said of the vandalism.

Bruette said three of his eight pieces of equipment were insured, but he still had to lay off six of his 14 employees, four of whom hail from the Springfield area.

The employees had been with Bruette since 1999 and received approximately $1,500 a week. Now, heading into the holiday season, those workers are living off unemployment, he said.

“We’re a very close group, and it was hard to lay those guys off,” he said.

Bruette is hopeful that he’ll eventually be able to rehire his former employees. He’s since bought a new crane.

The Kansas City Star reported that on Nov. 3, the Jackson County prosecutor charged Joshua Bacus, Jason Culbertson and Christopher Walters each with five counts of tampering and one count of first-degree property damage, which combined could land each of them in prison for as much as 39 years.

“The one sad thing about the whole event: the boys, they did not realize how many lives they affected,” Bruette said. “I feel terrible for their families, because this is going to hang with these boys the rest of their lives.”[[In-content Ad]]