A few weeks ago, we brought you word of a group of students who caused over $50,000 of damage at a couple of Michigan ski resorts – and now it looks like they’re going to be paying the price.
The incidents occurred across Treetops Resorts and Boyne Highland Resorts in the community of Gaylord – a name sure to have triggered a few giggles amongst the Greek Life bulldozers – with Sigma Alpha Mu and a couple other unnamed fraternities virtually obliterating a wing of their hotel.
After all was said and done, roofs mopped up and furniture replaced, it turns out the total sum of the damage was actually nearer $100,000, more than double what was initially thought. That’s borderline impressive.
Most of the rooms that the fraternities trashed are now back open for business – although rumoured to be haunted with the scent of jaeger – but nearly all the locals want criminal prosecution, and it’s not hard to see why.
Paul Beachnau, Otsego County Commissioner, admitted: “I’ve never seen anything on this scale at all. There’s been a few odds and ends where a couch is broken or something like that, but never where it’s just a total destruction of literally a full wing of one of our resorts.
“It was overplayed. I feel like stuff like that happens pretty often, especially with fraternities…”
“People really feel violated about what happened. Gaylord is a hardworking community.”
Indeed, the Animal House-inspired frat boys and their sister sorority managed to fit a full 53 rooms into their game of anti-Grand Designs, and the Otsego County Board of Commissioners have passed a resolution by a 9-0 vote insisting on prosecution to the “fullest extent of the law.” That’s some serious shit right there.
Not everyone thinks they should be charged though. Fraternity members at UMich for example – i.e. the mates of the lads who caused the damage – don’t actually think it was that bad.
Ryan Vanslyck, a member of U-M fraternity not on the ski trip, said: “I feel like it was a little bit overplayed. I feel like stuff like that happens pretty often, especially with fraternities.
“The media made it out to be more than it is and the fraternities and sororities are paying the price. I feel like obviously they should pay for it and get a slap on the wrists, but ultimately I think they’ll be penalised a little bit harder than they deserve to be.”
To be fair, if they are forced to pay back the $100,000 they owe, then that would be a weighty but entirely understandable punishment. It’d be pretty hard to argue with too.
Think how many plates you’d have to smash to rack up that kind of six-figure bill.
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