Inside The Industry: Man Destroys Vacuum Machine at South Florida Gas Station
After he was unable to use a vacuum cleaner from a South Florida gas station because it was broken, a man decided to take out his frustration on the machine by ripping it out of the ground using his pickup truck. “Strapped it around the back of his pick-up truck and basically just jammed the machine over,” said Juan Vilches, the owner of the vacuum.
On July 10, the man went to the Westar Gas Station, located at 6776 S.W. 117th Ave., to use the vacuum, but once he deposited his money, he realized it was broken. The man then went into the store and spoke to the clerk but was told he would need to contact the owner of the vacuum. Upset, the man tied his pickup truck to the vacuum and pulled the vacuum out of the ground, destroying it. Electrical wiring from the vacuum was also pulled out and remained exposed. “The guy, basically, took it upon themselves to damage the machine,” said Vilches. “Obviously, this is the kind of people that we don’t want out there.”
The man then untied his truck from the destroyed machine and fled the scene in an unknown direction. “Cost a couple of thousand dollars to get this machine replaced and the electricity repaired,” said Vilches.
Surveillance video from the gas station caught the entire incident on camera, and Vilches hopes someone will recognize the man and report him to police. “Very, very violent because obviously in part of the video, you see there’s another car coming that he could’ve crashed into,” said Vilches. “The actual concrete base weighs 1,500 pounds, around 1,500 pounds. We use a special crane to deliver them. We have to send a crane over there to basically pick up the old one, replace it with a new one and repair all the electricities, so it’s quite a job.”
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