(La Porte County, IN) - Frozen bottles of water were the objects a man allegedly used to strike oncoming vehicles on a stretch of La Porte County highway late last year.

 

Those are among the new details obtained from the case filed in La Porte Circuit Court recently against 18 year old Phillip Duffus.  Duffus is charged with four counts of Level 6 felony criminal recklessness and four counts of criminal mischief, a Class B misdemeanor.

 

According to court documents, four vehicles were struck on December 13 by frozen water bottles Duffus tossed from an oncoming vehicle on U.S. 421 from 200 North to 1800 South.  One of the victims had to pull over when a frozen water bottle struck his grill, causing the engine and transmission to die.

 

Police said a major break in the investigation came from surveillance video obtained that night from a store in Westville showing a man in a vehicle identified as Duffus through a forensic examination of the footage.  Another break came from a shirt the suspect was wearing in the video matching a shirt his father in LaCrosse showed investigators, police said.

 

Police said his father also identified the man in the video as his son.

 

In another video from the same store, police said a man believed to be Duffus was at the counter with a case of bottled water and three two liter bottles containing flavored soda.

 

Duffus told investigators he longer lives with his father but now resides in Gary.  He was arrested in Lake County.