Two boys, 11 and 13 charged in Museum Breakin, Burglary and Vandalism

http://abc7chicago.com/3772508/

More, including link to go fund me page:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/boys ... ey-museum/

https://www.nbcchicago.com/on-air/as-se ... 42411.html

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/D ... 43051.html

https://www.gofundme.com/fox-river-trolley-museum

I merged both together into one topic.

From the currently available evidence it would appear that the 2 vandals come from prosperous looking neighborhoods and thus most likely from parents that have some positive net worth.

If that assumption proves correct I would urge the museum leadership to sue both sets of parents for every cent of damage plus plenty for legal fees and " pain & suffering".

Objective being to both cover the needed repairs and to send an unmistakable signal to the community of not being anyones punching bag.

IMHO-Ross Rowland

That'd be like saying a trolley is a steam locomotive, "in a generic sense." It's not apples and oranges; that'd be like apples and telephone poles.
Remember this the next time you nitpick someone else's posts.
Nobody gets anything beyond actual damages in such a case.
"Pain and suffering" refers to what is actually known in the industry as 'general' damages in an injury liability case (where you can prove non-economic damages that would vary from person to person based on the non-financial effects on their lives). You don't get anything extra for a property damage case. Getting your legal fees compensated varies by the type of case and the legal venue. I'm not familiar with Illinois in that regard.
And even if you do win, it's no guarantee you'll ever see a penny.

So, you make sure you provide evidence of any revenue that was lost, due to the equipment being unavailable. Previous ticket sales for this year, and previous comparable dates in the preceding years, should provide a basis for anyone with a halfway decent mind, and a pocket calculator to figure an acceptable figure out.


You include lost wages for and every volunteer who missed time at their "real" job to deal with the immediate aftereffects of this crime.

You include professional estimates for repairs to any damages to they caused to the barn.

You do an asset search on every member of the responsible families, and you put leins on their homes for any amount they do not pay immediately.


As others have said, you send a strong message that you are no ones stepstool, and while you want to be a good neighbor, that's a 2 way street!

Jeff

The problem though is once you tick off the neighborhood it's only a matter of time before you become the next ITM. People want you gone then they will vote for whom ever promises to follow through with the removal of your beloved museum from the community. Politicians can find no end of ways to make your life painful or forcefully remove your organization from the community in favor of a parks and rec center or swimming pool or even worse, more housing projects.

More and more of the youngest people care less about a big yard full of rusty or vintage railway vehicles. To those none railfans out there your collection is just a pile of scrap metal waiting to become SUV's and kitchen appliances.

The newer generations are not very interested in railways or vintage locomotives. They are wanting and waiting for tomorrow's technologies.

Robert

I don't really see how seeking restitution from criminals would get a bad reaction from the community. Most people don't care at all. In these suburban places, the "tough on crime" attitude is normal as well as contempt for everyone else's unruly kids. The litigation won't get reported on. From a potential customer point of view, the number of parents that have to worry about this is zero because their kids arent going to do anything and it won't affect attendance at all. Who causes 100 stacks of damage? Its an extraordinary situation.

Insuring real estate and facilities is easy. The problem with insuring museum relics like antique rolling stock is putting an arbitrary value on something that is "priceless" while at the same time not having a market value to go by. Some insurance companies will be happy to insure any amount on anything you ask, if you pay. Will they pay? If they do pay, the thing might well be destroyed anyway or else there is not much that makes a claim worthwhile. Either way the organization is kind of screwed.

I hate to say this, and I bet nobody wants to hear it, but how about using plexiglass for some of these restored windows ??? Maybe FRA approved glazing ??? Same for headlight lenses, and numberboard glasses.

You're entitled to the full cost of restoring back to pre-loss condition. That's an important point, one that is missed by many. You don't get to have the stuff be better off than right before the loss, once the repairs are done (or paid). That's called, "betterment" and no carrier owes that.

In some cases, you can get an estimate from the local contractor (pick a really good one, one that is known to charge more than the fly by night guys, like a outfit that deals with restoring old homes) and that amount might be a lot more than what it'd cost for your own people to do the work. You'd get to pocket the difference if that's the case. They owe for what it'd take commercially to have the work done. If you can do it for less, that's no concern of the insurance carrier. Happens all the time with antique and beater cars.
Fire/renter/homeowner claims folks can get stymied really fast by the unusual. It's a box they can't easily check. I know with antique cars, I've seen people defer to the estimates of restoration companies when cashing the owners out, and I know those were usually way more than the local normal body shop.
It's little kids. There are plenty of do-gooders who feel that little Johnny had some kind of reason for busting out the windows, and the big-bad "old white guys and their 1:1 scale toy trains" are just beating up on them. I've seen something similar happen with a military museum several years ago. It got really ugly for the people who'd been broken into by kids about the same age as these. In that case, it got turned into an ethnic thing, if you catch my drift.
You might have a point there, one I hadn't thought of.

From criminal restitution, the museum might not even be legally entitled to the full amount of reimbursement from each household, but some cap. Seeking this or going further with litigation if that is even possible is not "beating up". It is just the ugly process that has to happen. Excuses are better off for some amount of damage much less than 100k. There is also no ethnic angle in this case, I'm pretty sure.

If you use the courts the way they like to operate you can get some restitution. A friend of mine was hit by a driver without insurance in Denver, he followed through with the DA and the court and even though the driver was poor the judge forced her to make payments every month for years afterward or go to jail. My friend treated it as a debt he was owed, and the court was able to wrap itself around that concept and force payment. If you go in there saying you want to punish these kids and make a statement to the world about juvenile delinquency etc. the court will blink twice and stop listening to what you are saying, because that isn't what they do.

Not FRA glazing. FRA has a funny rule about that; if your vehicle is exempt (all Fox River's are) and you put FRA glazing on it anyway, then you are on the hook to maintain FRA glazing forever. And the stuff loves to yellow and fog.

Just to pick what might be a significant nit down the line: you would not want to replace any window on equipment preserved outdoors with 'Plexiglas' (which is acrylic plastic, prone to various kinds of environmental degradation as well as brittle fracture). What you'd be using is "Lexan", which is polycarbonate. (And this is soft, so easy to scratch, and as noted historically prone to discolor over time.

I do not know how serious the degradation in a careful preservation environment, where stiff nylon brushes aren't routinely used with caustic cleaners for maintenance and the plastic has been made or treated with UV stabilizers or hard surface coating.