Cars flipped over during Oktoberfest weekend
LA CROSSE, Wis. — By 2:30 a.m. Sunday, La Crosse police had responded to three cars that had been flipped over by the weekend’s party-goers.
According to police on the scene, all three cars were in neighborhoods surrounding the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s campus. The latest one took place near 13th and Vine Streets.
UW-L sophomore Samantha Lieven said she watched from a car as people scoped out a car to flip.
“We saw four guys trying to flip a car. They came around three different times looking at different cars, seeing which one was easier to flip,” Lieven said.
Lieven also heard the group of men asking bystanders if they wanted to help them flip the car.
The La Crosse Police Department had officers on foot, on bike and in cars patrolling the campus neighborhoods during the Oktoberfest weekend, but the partyers still found a way to do some serious damage.
“The police on the bikes came around every five minutes, and they waited until they went down the street completely and turned up the street, and then they flipped the car,” Lieven said.
22185446Police on the scene said it may be difficult to track down who’s responsible for the damage, since the weekend’s festivities brought thousands of people from out of town.
All three cars were towed by Craig’s Towing and Repairs of La Crosse. Bryan Bowman was one of the men assigned with the task of flipping back over the vehicles. He said it wasn’t an easy one.
“It took three of us to push a yellow car, a Cavalier,” Bowman said. “It was an officer, another one or two of our truck drivers, and myself to push it over. It took us rocking it to get it to go.”
Both Bowman and Lieven witnessed the destruction Saturday night that left two out of three flipped cars impossible to drive. Both said they hope the partyers’ actions don’t reflect poorly on the Oktoberfest weekend as a whole.
“Don’t damage stuff so it ruins it for others,” Bowman said. “Some of us have children that love to go to Oktoberfest, and they’re going to cancel it.”
Lieven was more concerned for how the events would reflect on her school.
“I think it gives the school a really bad rep, especially on this weekend, which is really unfortunate,” she said.
La Crosse police would not share any more information about the damage Sunday night.
