Police investigate nails, spikes left in GOP office parking lot in Charlevoix Co.

A $2,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people who left nails to pop car tires near the Charlevoix County Republican Party, police said.

Boyne City police officers were called Saturday to the party's headquarters on 123 North Park Street for a report of someone leaving multiple items placed near it. Officials said the items appeared to be designed to damage vehicles parked at the address.

Investigators collected evidence from the scene and it is being examined. An anonymous donor is offering the $2,000 reward, police said.

John Jarema, chairman of the Charlevoix County Republicans, said in a statement that one of the party's volunteers stepped on one of the "tire spikes" and immediately alerted others. The devices were made from flattened bottle caps with roofing nails pressed through and painted in black to blend in with the parking lot's blacktop, he said. One was found in the tire of at least one vehicle.

"Whoever attacked our Republican headquarters clearly had intent to commit bodily harm," Jarema said. "Thank God no one was hurt."

He decried the act and said Americans who disagree on issues debate and vote, but they do not physically attack others.

"We condemn this horrible act of violence against our organization, and the families who live in the apartments above our office."

The Michigan Conservative Coalition, a Walled Lake-based nonprofit that operates Michigan Trump Republicans and Women for Trump, blasted the attempt to damage tires at the GOP headquarters in Charlevoix County.

"It is beyond time to hold accountable those actually being violent around our elections," Rosanne Ponkowski, the coalition's president, said in a statement Sunday. "These criminals need to be arrested, charged, convicted, and then sentenced to the maximum allowed by Michigan law. We await a response from Michigan's current Attorney General, who we would like to think will join us in condemning these actions."

Anyone with information about the incident should call the Boyne City Police Department at (231) 582-6597.