IC transient with history of damaging cars arrested for damaging more cars

Lang
9/4/21

A transient with a history of damaging cars has been arrested again for allegedly damaging more cars.

Iowa City Police were dispatched to Mexico Lindo on Lower Muscatine Road and Play it Again Sports on 1st Avenue just before 11:30 Tuesday morning for reports of a subject damaging vehicles in the parking lots. Five vehicles had their side mirrors broken off, and a sixth had a large scratch on the passenger side quarter panel. Total damage was estimated at $2,200.

One of the victims was able to take a photo of the suspect and send it to investigators, who identified the man as 45-year-old Michael Dacunos. Dacunos was booked into the Johnson County Jail just after 1:15 Friday afternoon and charged with 2nd Degree Criminal Mischief. If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in prison. Dacunos was released from jail about two hours after his arrest.

Dacunos has a history of damaging motor vehicles. He was fined $210 in May after he hit a woman’s car with an umbrella near the corner of Highway 6 and Boyrum Street, breaking a side mirror. Dacunos was given a suspended sentence after breaking multiple car windows at Deery Brothers Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram on Highway 1 West, the 600 block of South Riverside Drive and the 1100 block of South Gilbert Street. He also faces a September 17th arraignment on charges of 4th Degree Criminal Mischief and Disorderly Conduct stemming from an incident last July. Dacunos allegedly tipped over a motorcycle parked at Bruegger’s Bagel Bakery on South Riverside Drive and confronted the owner, claiming he’d punched him the night before. The motorcycle’s owner told police he’d never seen Dacunos before.