Suspected Go-For-It Raceway burglars appearing in court

ANTIGO — Two teenagers that are believed to be responsible for the burglary that occurred at Go-For-It Raceway several weeks ago have been found and charged with felonies.

Reed Hurlbert, 17, appeared Monday afternoon at the Langlade County Courthouse, where he was charged with burglary of a building or dwelling, a class F felony, as well a misdemeanor for criminal damage to property. Zachary Pilecky, 18, whose charges are essentially the same as Hurlbert’s, will appear in court later this month.

Langlade County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Dan Bauknecht said that while he can not release details of the case to the public at this time, no others are believed to have been involved.

“There are no other suspects,” Bauknecht said. “It was a crime of opportunity at that particular place — they just took advantage of what was there in my opinion.”

The pair broke into the race track clubhouse on the night of April 22, stealing six walkie talkies, five fire extinguishers, a computer monitor, a TV, and, to the outrage of the local racing community, a large trophy honoring Dustin White, a respected racer that often competed at Go-For-It before passing away unexpectedly in 2019 at the age of 34. They also damaged items within the clubhouse — like a sliding glass door they shattered with a fire extinguisher, seemingly after they had already broken in — and tore around the racetrack in their utility terrain vehicle (UTV).

Go-For-It Raceway owner Joe Acker said that to his knowledge, Sheriff’s Officers began to hone in on Hurlbert’s and Pilecky’s’ trail because the boys had told others what they had done.

“Basically, a tip got phoned in to the detectives. Then the detectives got a hold of me right away. From what my understanding is, he got some videos of the Ranger on the track from one of the people that broke in. So they were sharing videos basically,” Acker said, though this has not been confirmed by the Sheriff’s Office.

According to the criminal complaint, Sheriff’s Office Detectives Jake DeFiore and Jordan Sorano located the UTV and learned that it contained a GPS device, which confirmed that on the night in question, the vehicle had traveled to the racetrack and lapped it continuously. They also found red dirt on the tires like that which lines the racetrack.

When confronted by the detectives, Pilecky admitted to the crime. Hurlbert at first admitted only to “ripping around” the track, then later claimed he could not remember what had happened because he had been intoxicated. During the hearing Monday, however, Hurlbert expressed remorse for his actions.

All of the stolen items — including the trophy, which had been broken into pieces — were found discarded in Spring Brook, and a piece of paper with Hurlbert’s name had been attached to the trophy.

Acker called the way the crime was committed “disgusting.”

“To take a memorial trophy and then to put your name on it like that? You’re disrespecting the families, the friends…the racing community all feels the way I feel about it,” Acker said. “They’re disgusted by it. You can read some of the Facebook posts and you can definitely tell from their emotions that it’s just heartbreaking that somebody would do such a stupid thing for nothing. At the end of the day, they didn’t actually steal one thing that they made a penny off of, because they threw everything in the river. So for them to have a little bit of fun cost the racing community huge.”

The trophy is apparently being rebuilt with some parts of the original damaged trophy.

“The trophy shop is positive they can use some of the pieces,” Acker said. “They’re not sure what exactly, because some of the columns are broke, but they might be able to cut them down and make shorter columns on them and that kind of stuff. It’s going to be more work for them than just unwrapping something from a piece of plastic, but to me, it’s well worth it. A lot of people are stepping up trying to split the bill for that and help me out and help out the White family.”

Acker said details of the crime changed his mind about the punishment those who committed it deserve.

“I don’t feel sorry for them at all anymore,” he said. “After you kind of look at their records already, you can see they’re not going down a good road, and maybe a little jail time is the right thing for them.”