Published: April 16, 2008 07:55 pm      

Man alleges racial slur as motive for vandalism

BROWNSBURG — An Indianapolis man has been arrested and charged with 13 counts of criminal mischief, resisting law enforcement, and two class D felonies in connection with three vandalism incidents over the past month at the Wright Motor Company car dealership in Brownsburg.

Tuan A. Chu, 30, told police that a racial slur targeted at him by a Wright Motor employee led him to ride his green Schwinn bicycle from his home on the east side of Indianapolis all the way to the Brownsburg shop on three occasions to bust out as many as 100 windows from cars on the dealership lot.

The dealership’s owner, Eldon Wright, dismissed Chu’s claims and Brownsburg Police detectives were also skeptical that an alleged racial slur was in fact Chu’s motive.

“There’s no truth to that,” Wright said. “It’s absolutely not true. Anytime you deal with a deadbeat, they are going to pull the race card. He told them that, but then he told them that he did this all three times. I don’t have people like that. I’ve got professional people.”

Chu is an employee of Independent Auto Glass, a company Wright says he had used for service on a broken truck windshield back in mid-March.

Wright said that on March 22, roughly a week after Chu made the repairs, 15 windows on additional dealership vehicles had been busted out, prompting him to again hire Chu to do additional repairs.

“They had done a nice job the first time and everything went smooth, so we called them back,” Wright said.

Several weeks later, on April 5, damage was yet again inflicted on cars sitting on the lot.

Wright said that this time three auto glass repair shops were called, but that Chu was the only person available to do the work and was once again hired.

“The week before the Saturday he got caught, I handed him a check for $4,900, personally,” Wright said.

Police say that shortly after 12:20 a.m. April 12, they responded to a complaint of criminal mischief at Wright Motor Company after a security guard recently added by Wright reported witnessing the crime. Officers responded to that location to find a male wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans who they later identified as Chu.

Chu allegedly ran from police, heading south toward Motif Boulevard, hiding between storage sheds and businesses along the way.

Police say he then retrieved his bicycle and attempted to flee before wrecking the bike twice near the intersection of Green Street and Motif Boulevard.

Police say they seized $4,141 in cash, a metallic window punch, a black Motorola Nextel phone, a piece of broken glass, and a camouflage mask that Chu had allegedly been wearing at the time of his arrest.

Wright says he will likely be out at least $10,000 as a result of the damage and that the number could climb as high as $16,000, depending on how insurance issues are resolved. However, he did say that he was grateful for the efforts of the Brownsburg Police Department.

“Those guys did a great job,” Wright said. “Chief Carroll put more surveillance on and last Friday night when my guard figured out that someone was in the building, they were there in three minutes.”

Chu has been released from jail on bond and police put the total damage estimate from all three incidents at just over $17,000.

brian.kern@flyergroup.com