Damage attributed to teens tops $55,000 with new charges
Published 1:00 pm Thursday, January 17, 2019
MOULTRIE, Ga. — Damage at Colquitt County businesses attributed to two teen-agers has grown to more than $55,000 as the boys have been identified as suspects in a fourth vandalism case.
The boys, ages 13 and 14, were arrested earlier in connection with damage to three businesses inside Moultrie along Veterans Parkway North.
On Wednesday the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office filed charges against each on counts of burglary and criminal damage to property in connection with a break-in last month.
At about 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 15, sheriff’s Sgt. Ronald Jordan said, the two went into a vacant hair salon building at 441 U.S. Hwy. 319 N. and stayed about an hour.
“The two juveniles went up there and threw concrete blocks through the windows, threw a block into the front door,” he said. “They caused about $15,000 in damage to the salon. Windows were broken, mirrors were broken.”
The same two boys are accused of what police described as “destroying” the entire showroom area and other interior parts of Lasseter Tractor Co., 1000 Veterans Parkway.
As of Wednesday damage at the tractor dealership had been tallied at $40,000 and the tallying is not completed, Moultrie Police Department Lt. Freddie Williams said.
Merchandise, including Yeti coolers and flashlights, also were reportedly stolen from that location.
The pair is also accused of breaking windows of two buses and stealing a fire extinguisher out of one of them at Langdale Automotive and Powersports, 795 Veterans Parkway N., and they’re charged in a break-in early Saturday morning at Margaritas Tex Mex Bar & Grill at 525 Veterans Parkway N.
Officers responded to an alarm at Margaritas at about 2:51 a.m. Saturday, and an officer on patrol in the area later came across the two teens. They were identified by video as the burglars who damaged a door to enter the restaurant, police said. They were charged and released to their parents.
The damage at Langdale was discovered at about 10:40 a.m. Saturday and the damage at Lasseter on Monday morning, and police took the suspects into custody again.
In the three vandalism cases that occurred in the city police charged them with felony counts of smash and grab burglary, burglary and three counts criminal damage to property, and a misdemeanor charge of entering auto.