Tires of Chicago gay pride parade floats slashed
Vandals tried to rain on the Pride Parade in Chicago, by slashing the tires of parade floats.
Police confirmed that someone punctured tires on 51 parade floats at a storage facility, reports CBS Station WBBM.
Chuck Huser, owner of Associated Attractions Enterprises, Inc., said every float stored at the warehouse had two of its tires punctured overnight. He said organizers of the parade scrambled to replace as many tires as possible in time for the parade's noon kickoff.
Huser said he and his crews made more than 80 percent of the floats in this year's parade, and had worked at the warehouse until 8 p.m. Saturday to finish them. When they returned at 5 a.m. to ready them for the parade, he said, "We noticed all the floats were leaning to one side. Every single float had a knife hole in (two tires.)"
Police said that the vandalism was not being treated as a hate crime. But Huser said he didn't know what else to call it.
Parade coordinator Richard Pfeiffer said he thinks it's a hate crime, too.
"That's my gut reaction, that it probably is." Pfeiffer said. "Why would someone pick the night before the LGBT Pride Parade to do something like this?"