Akron Police are asking the public to help identify suspects caught vandalizing a city-owned storage facility, where six vehicles being held as evidence in open cases were damaged, along with two large construction vehicles at a second city site. Investigators say one suspect defecated at the scene before the group fled. The break-ins are documented under case numbers #26-99805 and #26-99861.
According to the Akron Police Department, the pictured suspects broke into the department's storage facility and vandalized six vehicles that were being held as evidence, then struck a second city-owned site where they damaged two large construction vehicles. As reported by WKYC, both incidents happened on August 18, and the two damaged construction vehicles were identified as Harvester International models.
Evidence Damage Raises the Legal Stakes
Because six of the wrecked vehicles were being stored as evidence in ongoing investigations, the case carries legal weight beyond a typical break-in. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2909.05, knowingly damaging property owned or controlled by a government entity is charged as felony vandalism, with penalties ranging from a fifth-degree felony carrying six to 12 months in prison for damage under $7,500 up to a third-degree felony carrying nine to 36 months if losses reach $150,000 or more, per Ohio law.
Suspects also face potential charges under Ohio Revised Code Section 2921.12, which makes intentionally damaging items known to be involved in an official proceeding or investigation a third-degree felony punishable by up to 36 months in prison, according to Ohio law. That stands in sharp contrast to ordinary criminal damaging under Ohio Revised Code Section 2909.06, which typically applies to personal property and is only a second-degree misdemeanor carrying up to 90 days in jail. It remains unclear whether the damage to the evidence vehicles could complicate any pending prosecutions tied to those cases, or what the total dollar value of the destruction at both sites amounts to.
How Suspects Got Into a Police Storage Site Is Still Unknown
The department's Crime Scene Unit relies on a cloud-based digital evidence storage system alongside physical evidence management to maintain case files for city and county prosecutors, according to official city records from AkronOhio.gov. How the suspects managed to breach the physical storage facility itself has not been detailed publicly, and that remains an open question in the investigation.
This is not the first time Akron Police have tracked a vandalism spree across multiple locations using linked case files. In August 2025, the department investigated another multi-site property destruction incident, tracked under case numbers #25-88913 and #25-88734, after a suspect used a hammer to destroy property at a local health center, a gas station, and a church, according to the Akron Police Department. Detectives routinely group separate case numbers together to cross-reference evidence and track suspects when a single spree hits several properties in a short span, as Hoodline previously reported.
How to Submit a Tip
Detective Sgt. M. Joyner is handling the investigation and can be reached at 330-375-2464 or 330-375-2TIP. Anonymous tips can also be submitted through Summit County Crimestoppers at 330-434-COPS, through the Akron PD app, or by texting TIPSCO to 274637 via the Tips411 platform. Information can be found on the department's website at www.akroncops.org.
Anyone who recognizes the suspects is asked to send information privately rather than posting it in the comments of the department's social media appeal. Property crimes such as theft, assault, and vandalism have long made up the largest share of reported criminal incidents across major Northeast Ohio cities, according to regional police data.
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