Teens arrested over video showing vandals destroying crane and digger worth $3M in Cairns

Two teens have been arrested after allegedly filming themselves causing $3 million worth of construction equipment damage.

Vandals were seen bragging about destroying millions of dollars worth of machinery in Gordonvale, Cairns, including a $2.4 million crane and a $500,000 excavator in images posted to social media on Saturday.

A 17-year-old has been charged with two counts of willful harm and is set to appear in Cairns Children’s Court next month. The other teenager, also 17, is being treated under the Juvenile Justice Act.

The couple are alleged to have spray-painted ‘f**k me here’ on the side of the excavator owned by Advanced Civil Earthworks, as well as smashing its windows.

Police will allege the couple also set off fire extinguishers and ignited fires that destroyed a $2.4 million crane owned by family-owned Century Cranes.

In videos that circulated on social networks, two men can be seen breaking the windows of the crane after having covered it with spray paint and tearing the equipment to pieces.

The children in the video can be heard bragging and cursing as they continue to ravage the machine.

The pair are alleged to have spray-painted ‘f**k me here’ on the side of the excavator owned by Advanced Civil Earthworks, as well as smashing its windows in

Text overlaid on the images reads, “because we can,” followed by a kissy face emoji.

The $500,000 excavator is owned by Advanced Civil Earthworks, a Cairns company.

Supervisor Toby Proctor said the vandals smashed windows, ripped out the radio and covered the exterior and interior with spray paint.

‘I don’t understand why they do it. This is someone’s livelihood and the laws need to change to prevent this from happening. Now we’re down to a bulldozer and wages, plus the cost of fixing it.

Images posted online show two children breaking windows of a $2.4 million crane

“The bulldozer is not even two years old and it cost $500,000,” he said.

Proctor added that he was waiting for police to fully assess the damage to the expensive piece of machinery.

“The problem here is juvenile crime and the fact that they do it for no apparent reason other than to destroy something,” he said.

Two teenage boys filmed themselves vandalizing millions of dollars worth of machinery belonging to two local Cairns businesses.

General manager Bianca Wilson said she was devastated after the discovery of the attack on her property and that the crane had been purchased last year.

“It’s one of our two biggest machines and with the infrastructure projects around Cairns at the moment, we’re heavily reliant on both,” Ms Wilson told the Courier mail on Monday.

“We are not sure if it will be necessary to cancel the team, as we are still evaluating it.”

The vandals used a large wooden pole to vandalize the heavy machinery.

Ms Wilson said the biggest concern was the damage to the crane’s internal computer system, as it was crucial to the machine’s operation.

Cairns MPs have also responded to the attack, saying juvenile offenders are ‘on notice’.

In a joint statement, Cook MP Cynthia Lui, Mulgrave MP Curtis Pitt, Cairns MP Michael Healy and Barron River MP Craig Crawford said they were “appalled by the wanton vandalism and without sense”.

“Equally troubling is the brazen way in which the criminals allegedly filmed the attack, bragged about their exploits on social media and taunted their victims.

“Each crime has a ripple effect in the community, and the potential impact of this on two family businesses and several construction projects in Cairns is obvious.”