Ohio police cannot crack egg-tossing case

March 6, 2015: A home that has been pelted with eggs several times a week for a year is shown. (AP)

An Ohio home has been pelted with eggs several times a week for the last year and police cannot find a suspect despite stakeouts, questioning neighbors, installing cameras and even testing eggshells as evidence.

The Northeast Ohio Media Group reports the 85-year-old man and Euclid police suggest the eggs are being launched from a block or two away.

Albert Clemens Sr. said whoever is launching the eggs has “phenomenal” accuracy after launching at least five at a time and hitting the front door of his home. Clemens says the egg splatter on the aluminum siding of the house often sound like gunshots.

Clemens said the residue from the egg strips the paint of his siding. He used to clean it up each time, but it happens so often that it forced him to stop. His insurance will not settle a claim until the vandal or vandals are apprehended.

"I would live and die in this house — but it's been kind of a nightmare," Clemens told the media group.

Officers haven't determined a suspect or specific motive, though they have suspicions.

"Somebody is deeply, deeply angry at somebody in that household for some reason," Lt. Mitch Houser said.

Police have traced the eggs to an Amish farm, but egg proteins render DNA tests useless.

"The person or people who are doing it have remained very tight-lipped apparently," Houser said. "I would imagine it would be hard to keep a secret of something that had been done hundreds of times and for nobody to step forward to talk about it."

Police have spent hundreds of hours on the investigation, but their involvement doesn't seem to be a deterrent. Once, an egg hit an officer in the foot as he took a report on the vandalism.

The egging has been rarer during cold weather, but Clemens and the officers anticipate the attacks will increase with the temperature.

"We're not going to let it go," Houser said. "We'll continue to put effort into it until we figure something out."

The Associated Press contributed to this report