A Fox River Trolley Museum official said this window is one of the ones that can never be fully restored due to the unique pattern of the glass. (Photo by Kelli Duncan / for Chronicle Media)

A recent vandalism spree by two youths at the Fox River Trolley Museum in South Elgin is going to cost up to $150,000 to fix.

Late on Friday, July 6, two boys — ages 11 and 13 — broke into the car barn of the Fox River Trolley Museum and caused damage to antique public transportation equipment inside, according to Chief Car Officer Jeff Bennett.

Bennett said the youths broke into their maintenance building, stole a pickaxe and used it to break through the wall of the car barn where some of the museum’s older trolleys are kept.

He said the boys might have gotten away with it if it weren’t for a woman who lives up the road from the museum. According to Bennett, she found one of the boys fleeing the scene on his bicycle.

“It was late evening on Friday when she found the boy,” Bennett said. “He was riding a bike and bleeding pretty badly on his forearm.”

Bennett said the woman helped care for the boy’s wounds before reporting the incident to the South Elgin Police Department.

On July 7, a volunteer opened the barn’s doors to reveal a disturbing scene: bashed-in windows, broken glass and a trail of blood leading out the back door.

Bennett said they called the police, who brought out a crime scene unit to investigate the damage.

“They spent six hours here going over evidence and taking photographs,” Bennett said. “They took an entire SUV full of evidence.”

He said the police quickly made the connection between the vandalism and the strange call they had received the night before about a bleeding boy just up the road.

“Before they even left, they pretty much thought that they had solved the case,” Bennett said.

According to Bennett, they were able to match the blood in the barn to the blood on the materials that the woman had used to clean up the 11-year-old boy.

“The neighbors and the woman were able to identify the child who was bleeding the night before and led the police to him,” Bennett said. “So that boy, the 11-year-old, was brought in and confessed and said that he did it along with a 13-year-old friend who also confessed.”

Bennett said the two boys have been charged with burglary and criminal damage to property.

“I would say that the majority of us are not angry at the kids,” Bennett said. “If there’s anybody that I’m angry at it’s whoever was responsible for bringing these kids up to be a part of society.”

The car barn had eight trolley cars inside and each was damaged in some way that night. Bennett said they have since received estimates that the damage will cost anywhere from $100K to $150K to repair.

The glass in some windows is so unique and so old that it can never be fully restored to it’s former condition, Bennett said.

“This is the first time in the museum’s history, which goes back before 1960, that could have been financially destructive to us as an organization,” Bennett said. “It has been two weeks of an emotional rollercoaster.”

Bennett started a fundraising page with gofundme.com (insert link to page: https://www.gofundme.com/fox-river-trolley-museum) which had already raised over $18K as of Sunday, July 22.

The museum decided to hold a “Weekend of Healing” open house event in their car barn July 21-22 to show potential donors exactly what their money will go towards repairing.

Bennett said they have been overwhelmed by the support they have received from the community since news of the vandalism broke.

“I would have never known that something so terrible could bring out so many good people to help us,” Bennett said.

According to Bennett, they have had a few companies offer to donate the glass needed for the repairs. KRB Construction agreed to do most of the install work aided by museum volunteers.

He said they are hoping to have at least one of the cars restored in time for South Elgin’s Riverfest on Aug. 17-19.