About Us
Our founder started crushing in 1972
Jerry’s 1st car crusher
Our founder started with one of the 1st mobile crushers in the Midwest back in 1972. He crushed cars (and scrap metal) from Wisconsin (his home state) to Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. Most end-of-life vehicle yards back then didn’t have car crushers on-site, Jerry found a solution for quite a few of them and began to make a living. Hauling 6-7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, with the rare exception of a few holidays and special occasions. His drive was working. Hard. Without exception. If you weren’t in the hospital, you are at work!
Growing up on a farm, he knew hard work from the day he was born. When not tending to the farm and its animals, going to school and doing homework, he was working on something. Always busy. When his brothers asked him to play ball, he said ‘nah, I’ve got something to weld in the workshop’. He spent 2 years in the Army putting in as many extra hours as he could. Then lending money to the guys that were broke after a weekend off-base. Business man from the get go!
In 1982 he purchase a small parcel of land off 651 W. Washington with an easement to his property nearer the tracks. From there, the shop went up for sale and Jerry was on it. His drive was making a dream come to fruition in 1982. He incorporated in 1987 and rest is history.
The business has done what we can for the environment (on average hauling 40-50 tons a day to be recycled), the community (hosting regional fire department state certification accident scenarios for 1st responders); federal and local law enforcement (utilizing EOL vehicles to practice extrication and other exercises); Customs Border and Patrol (to destroy impounded/never to return to the street vehicles.)
Jerry’s truck loaded with downed high tension wire towers bent under the ice weight
Read more about the ’76 Wisconsin ice storm featured in weather.com
Crushing Cars
Early Crusher Years
Contact Us
Phone: (630) 231-6888
Fax: (630) 231-8859
theautocrusher@yahoo.com
Hours
Mon-Fri: 8am - 5pm
Sat: 9am - 12pm
Sun: Closed
Location
The Auto Crusher Inc.
651 W Washington St
West Chicago , IL 60185