Business owners offering $1,000 reward for information leading to arrest of parties who cut signs down
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ATOMIC CITY – The owners of an Atomic City business say someone cut down a company sign earlier this week and they’re offering a reward for information leading to their arrest and conviction.
Vickie O’Haro owns Atomic City Bar & Store and Atomic Motor Raceway with her husband, Blake Lyle. She tells EastIdahoNews.com four 4×6 signs along U.S. Highway 26 — two halfway between Blackfoot and Arco and the other two just before the connector road headed towards Atomic City — were cut down.
They first noticed one sign was missing Tuesday afternoon on their way home from town.
“It was about a quarter to 1,” O’Haro explains. “We noticed there was a truck and a baja buggy on a pullout road (near one of the signs on the way into Atomic City). When we came back, the sign that you would see headed towards the Site was half gone.”
They later discovered all four signs were gone and had been cut into pieces with a chainsaw. They have security footage of the vehicle that was near the signs coming into Atomic City, making a u-turn and then heading the opposite direction.
“We only missed them by 10 minutes,” says O’Haro.
The video doesn’t show anything in the back of the vehicle, but O’Haro says the buggy’s tracks are all over the area where they initially saw them.
O’Haro doesn’t know for sure who did it, but says it’s possible someone they kicked out of their bar in May is responsible.
“The signs have been up about six and a half years. We’re out in the middle of nowhere and we get a lot of business from people just seeing those signs,” she says.
Though they’ve filed a report with the Bingham County Sheriff’s Office, O’Haro says they haven’t heard anything back. They just want whoever is responsible to be held accountable.
The couple is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone with information that will lead to an arrest and conviction. Contact the Bingham County Sheriff’s Office at (208) 785-4440 or reach out to the bar’s Facebook page here or the Raceway’s Facebook page here.