MELBOURNE, Fla. — A Melbourne man is hoping that a reward will entice the vandals who damaged his livelihood to have a change of heart and learn from their experience.

  • Windows of Melbourne contractor's water truck shattered last week
  • Todd Willems is offering $500 for information, has filed police report
  • He says he won't press charges if vandals own up, pay for repairs

Last week, land development contractor Todd Willems was shocked to receive a call from another contractor telling him that something bad had happened to his water truck.

Someone had thrown large rocks at it, shattering every window. He thinks it may have been someone who lives in the area, because the truck's location is on a development area, not a main street.

"They got both side windows and front window. They are going to have to be replaced before it gets rained on," Willems said Sunday.

Aside from all the broken windows, the vandals didn't take anything.

"We've all done stupid stuff, but this is ridiculous. But at least they weren't at home playing video games, killing people or shooting people on the video games, so that's the good thing. Boys were being boys," he said.

Willems said it's going to cost at least $2,500 to fix the windows, and since off-road vehicles are not required to have insurance, he didn't have any. So the repairs would have to come out of his own pocket.

Willems said he filed a police report, and fingerprints were taken at the scene.  

In order to find those responsible, he's offering a $500 reward for information on who may have done this.

But he's also giving the vandals the chance to come forward, saying that if they pay for the damage, he won't press any charges and hopes they learn from the experience.

He's optimistic someone will come forward and realize they messed with someone's livelihood and have a change of heart and fix what they broke.

"I don't want to see a kid get in trouble, but they need to man up and do the right thing and pay for it," Willems said.