A 16-year-old was arrested in connection to more than 100 vehicle break-ins earlier this month in Maryland. But it’s what happened afterward that left Laurel’s police chief so agitated.
During the first weekend in May, 121 vehicles were broken into. Most occurred in the city of Laurel, but dozens happened in other parts of Prince George’s County, as well as in neighboring Howard and Anne Arundel counties.
Last week, a teenager who police said was linked to the crimes was arrested. He will face charges of motor vehicle theft and theft from automobiles.
“A search warrant was served at his home, resulting in the recovery of numerous credit cards, over 20 sets of vehicle keys and other evidence linking him to these crimes,” Police Chief Russ Hamill said. “I would like to tell you that’s the end of the story there, but that’s not the end of the story.”
Instead, the chief said, Maryland’s Department of Juvenile Services ordered the teenager released and he was back home again five hours later.
“They noted that he did not have a prior record, although I would offer well over 100 cases in one night gives you a pretty good record to go on, that he was not a flight risk … and that these were not violent crimes, as if that lessens the impact on those 121 victims,” Hamill said.
That last part is something he brought up earlier in the announcement, and said that was a bogus argument.
“It may seem like a lower level crime, that is, unless the vehicle stolen or broken into was your only way to get to work to support your family, it was your only means of transportation to get a family member to needed medical care, or to get your children to the critical after school events they do to help them become more well rounded and thrive,” Hamill said. “Then it doesn’t seem to be such a lower level crime if you’re one of those people.”
He added these crimes can create significant financial distress for victims.
“I’ve also heard people mentioned over the past couple weeks that insurance covers the damages, as if that makes it OK,” he said. “Except the car is still out of service for a while, and the victim has to pay the deductible, which in many cases is $500 to $1,000. I had one woman stop me and mention to me this was the third time this has happened to her car, and because her deductible was so high, she had to make adjustments in her home, including the purchase of food.”
Hamill said he doubted anything would be done to make the victims whole again. And he didn’t think much would be done to help the teenager either.
“I’m under no illusion that there will be extensive time of rehabilitation for this, because, as they said to us, they consider this a lower level crime,” Hamill said. “I urge them to come to my community meetings and hear how lower level it is.”
In fact, he invited the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services to a community meeting next week, and urged the community to reach out to their state lawmakers who passed many of the changes to the juvenile justice system in recent years.
“It’s not considered low level to them,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s nefarious,” he said regarding the way juvenile cases are handled. “I think it’s just a different idea of how this should go, and it’s not working.”
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