CCTV Surveillance Helps Track Man Who Brutally Killed Ducks

Aug. 18, 2005
Surveillance cameras catch savage acts of man repeatedly crushing tame duck population at car wash

The reward fund to find the man who slaughtered 10 ducks at a Campbell, Calif., carwash has grown to nearly $14,000, and police have three investigators working full time on the case.

''We're getting 50 to 75 tips a day,'' said Campbell police Capt. Russ Patterson. ''We're taking it very seriously. We're working as fast as we can.''

The spectacle of a man intentionally driving over the tame ducks at the Delta Queen Classic Car Wash -- and then getting out of his car and killing some with his hands -- has outraged people around the world.

Surveillance cameras captured the 12:30 a.m. Aug. 5 crime on videotape, although the tape is not clear enough for police to make out the license plate. It appears to be a vanity plate, and police identified the car as a red Acura Integra, a late-'80s or early '90s model.

''We're at $13,580 right now,'' Bryan Buell, assistant manager of the carwash, said Wednesday afternoon. ''At the end of the day, we expect the fund to be at $14,000. It's been phenomenal.''

The carwash has received at least one offer of free ducks, but Buell said the ducks are a family unit ''and will replenish themselves. We have the three baby ducks born on Saturday. We appreciate the feelings but we do not need ducks.''