May 18, 2026
When vandals did thousands of dollars worth of damage to a local contractor's equipment at a Cathedral City construction site, company leaders went public to try to find the culprits. But many online commenters offered hate instead of sympathy.
Commenters on TikTok video posted by a company executive said the vandalism was deserved because the firm is building a data center.
After reporting the incident to the police, Mario Crncic, the company's chief operations officer, said the suspects returned Thursday afternoon to vandalize vehicles that had been brought in to replace those that had already been damaged.
"A hundred percent they were watching us," Crncic speculated during a phone call Monday, May 18, with The Desert Sun. "They watched the gate get locked up and everybody leave."
Crncic said five pieces of heavy equipment and six water trucks were damaged. He estimated they would cost around $20,000 to repair, not an insignificant sum for a small business, plus the cost to rent equipment while they're being fixed.
But when Crncic posted a video on TikTok, he was surprised by the response.
The video, which had around 599,000 views as of Monday afternoon, caused some anonymous accounts to blame Crncic and his company for building a data center — which it is not doing.
"If you're building a data center….WE DON'T CARE," said one reply, which had more than 2,300 likes, the most of any.
Over the past few weeks, the Coachella Valley has been locked in a debate over the necessity of local data centers. The city of Coachella is considering moving forward with a proposal for a large data center that would consume up to 300 megawatts of electricity.
The proposal, which has not formally come before the city for approval, is known as the Coachella Valley Technology Campus. Local residents recently blasted the proposal at a town hall over the project's power usage and potential for pollution and water usage.
The anger over data centers made its way to the comment section of the Sky Construction video, even though the company's work has nothing to do with a data center. It's grading landscape for a new subdivision planned for the north end of Cathedral City, just north of Vista Chino.
Found on Mainstream News