College student visiting family in Minooka brutally beaten by kids TPing neighborhood, father says

MINOOKA, Ill. (WLS) -- A homecoming prank turned violent in Minooka.

A Minooka family says their son was brutally beaten by a group of kids covering trees and other items in toilet paper in a neighborhood.

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Tim Reilly says his son didn't want pictures of his injury shown, but he's still recovering from that attack. His dad says he's got months of recovery left to go.

"The doctor said it was the worst fractures he's ever seen," Reilly said.

Reilly says his 18-year-old son was back home from college for the Minooka High School homecoming game. He says his son noticed a group of eight kids wearing black ski masks throwing toilet paper around houses in the neighborhood.

He went to confront them.

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"My son was just standing there talking to one of the guys that had the toilet paper. Another kid walked up and just punched him in the face as hard as he could. He didn't even see it coming," Reilly said.

The incident on Oct. 3 landed him in the hospital, where he needed facial reconstruction surgery, and now can't eat solid food for the next three months.

"They had to put three plates in, but there was about four or five cracks that they had to screw it together," Reilly said.

Reilly says his son is back home and feeling a bit better.

"He joked a little bit. You know what? I mean, I thought, 'I got my son back.' But I hadn't had him for a week and a half. Just terrible, I mean, it's just a terrible thing," Reilly said.

But he still has a long way to go. It's why his dad started with offering a $500 reward for anyone to catch the people responsible.

"It's just shy of $9,000 right now. So many people keep calling and donating, and they're like, 'We need to catch this person,'" Reilly said.

He says he's only taking financial commitments right now and won't collect any money until the police have someone in custody. But he says the community support is encouraging.

"I also told my son: I said, 'there's bad people in the world.' I said, 'never forget that. But there's a lot more good people,'" Reilly said.

Minooka police said they are still investigating.