ISU fraternity house damaged by vandals

June 12--An Iowa State University fraternity is offering a reward in hopes of identifying vandals that caused what they think could be thousands of dollars of damage to their fraternity house earlier this week.

Brandon Hulme, an ISU senior and member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, had just gotten back to the fraternity house from working at Paddy's Irish Pub about 5 a.m. Sunday morning when he noticed white paint smeared on some of the front windows.

Inside, Hulme found paint smeared on the floor, splattered on walls and puddled on stairs throughout the first and second floors of the three-story house located at 224 Ash Ave.

"It was pretty apparent it wasn't an accident," he said.

The fraternity is currently remodeling parts of the house, so buckets of paint and plaster had been left in rooms that were being worked on. Along with the paint spread throughout the lower floors, eight trophies were missing from a trophy case on the first floor.

"Once it became pretty apparent that it was vandalism and not some accident, I was pretty disappointed to see what had been done," Hulme said. "It was either a prank that got extremely out of hand or blatant vandalism."

Ames Police are investigating the incident, and said Wednesday they believe the burglary happened between midnight and 5 a.m. Sunday, and aren't sure if it was one person or multiple people who caused the damage.

About 20 people are living in the house this summer, but many of them were out of town last weekend, and house members said none of the eight people asleep on the third floor heard anything during the incident.

William Underwood, a 2013 ISU grad and Tau Kappa Epsilon alum, said the fraternity is hoping a $2,500 reward will help bring forward information about the person or people responsible.

The fraternity hasn't received a final damage estimate from their insurance company yet, but Underwood said between all the carpet that has to be torn out and replaced, how widespread the damage was throughout the house and labor costs, they estimate the cost to be $20,000 to $50,000.

"Paint buckets were dropped on the stairwell and then they exploded," Underwood said. "They threw paint buckets in areas that aren't being remodeled.

The stolen trophies were from events like Veishea floats, Homecoming displays and Greek Week, Underwood said, and some of them dated back to the 1960s, '70s and '80s.

"We'd definitely like to see the trophies that were stolen back just because they have some sentimental value," Hulme said. "We'd also like to see the people responsible held accountable and let the court system take care of that."

While house members said small pranks are common among fraternity and sorority houses, house members said this incident is far beyond a typical prank.

"We don't think it was another house or anything," Underwood said. "We really have no idea who it was."

Tau Kappa Epsilon is offering a $2,500 reward through Story County Crime Stoppers for any information that leads to an arrest and a conviction. People can call or text anonymous tips to 515-382-7577.

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